Koichi Sugiyama
Sugiyama is one of the more often quoted references by collectors in regard to Japanese camera models. After I first started this project, I was shown the relevant Yashima/Yashica entries of Sugiyama’s “Collector’s Guide to Japanese Cameras”. In 2016, I visited the JCII Camera Museum in Tokyo and finally bought a copy of his updated book. Since I seem to be somewhat at odds with him, I feel that I need to say something.
Initially, I thought Sugiyama was the source of much of the incorrect thinking about the early Yashima/Yashica cameras but I now think that whilst there are some problems, his main flaw from the collector's perspective is the omission of key models, particularly those that were primarily export focused.
The following are my comments in order of Yashima/Yashica camera models.
Yashima’s Pigeonflex (2212) should be 1953, not 1954 and should come before Shinano’s Pigeonflex I (2211). Sugiyama contradicts himself by putting the Yashimaflex (2307) as earlier (1953 – correct year) than the Yashima Pigeonflex (1954 – wrong year according to Camera-wiki.org and my research) and then saying that the Pigeonflex made by “Yashima Optical was the forerunner of Yashica – see Yashimaflex”. Perhaps this was a simple typographical error or he has become confused with appearances or the numbering of the Pigeonflex models. In terms of forensic examination of the cameras themselves, the Yashima Pigeonflex is clearly the earliest, followed by the Shinano Pigeonflex IA with similarities to the Yashima Flex. The only Shinano made Pigeonflex Sugiyama identifies is the later model I, the budget companion to the slightly more upmarket IB (on The Pigeon Loft page, I argue why I think both these models were made by someone other than Shinano). Yes, the model I does look primitive compared to the others and model I sounds as if it may come first but its focusing hood (minus sports finder), camera back locking mechanism and knobs exactly match the model IB which has the cover plate for the shutter and is generally accepted as the last type (the model IC is the same except with different lenses and there is some question as to whether that name was actually used, then there is what may be called the model ID, very different and very rare - there are examples of both in The Pigeon Loft).
Sugiyama does not include the early Yashica Flex B or Yashicaflex A-I, AS-I or AS-II. The Yashicaflex S image (2287) displayed is of the correct 1954 early model with NKS-FB shutter but that particular example is fitted with the hood from a 1959 or later model camera – it has the narrow “Y” logo on a dark background (almost certainly blue) and single silver square. Early and late versions of the Yashicaflex C are shown when arguably bigger changes in other models (e.g. shutters, early/late bodies, shutter release type) are ignored. Both the Yashicaflex model A-II and model C, which are included, were very big sellers in Japan.
There is no mention of the Yashica A but he does identify the “Yashica-AIII” (2300) which is a predominantly grey version of the Yashica A (can also have black or brown metalwork) but without hood logo. Yashica documentation refers to the “Yashica A III”, see here. This is a domestic Japanese market version only (there are no examples with focusing scales in feet). I agree with Sugiyama's 1959 date for the Yashica A III but some, including McKeown's 1992/1993 edition, have mistakenly taken that to be the Yashica A introduction date, which Yashima’s advertising puts at 1956.
His 1960 release date for the Yashica 44A is at odds with a mountain of evidence placing the date mid-1959 or slightly earlier. However, my database also indicates that for 1959, there were no examples with confirmed focusing scales in metres apart from eleven Burgundy (brown metalwork) cameras that have appeared on auction sites in Sweden and the Netherlands and one example with black metalwork which is also likely to have been European export. Therefore, a deferred Japanese market release in 1960 looks very plausible, but not certain.
Other models not evident are the Yashica C, LM and B; Yashica Mat-LM and EM; Yashica 24 and Yashica 12 which all came before the Yashica Mat-124 (2302). And there is no Yashica Mat-124G which these days seems to be the most common crank wind model on Japanese auction sites. There are an awful lot of missing, dare I suggest significant, cameras here.
In discussing the Yashicaflex/ Yashica name change, I postulated that Sugiyama may have been concentrating, consciously or not, on actual models produced for the domestic Japanese market and tending to ignore models with an export focus. Whilst I believe that there is at least circumstantial evidence to support this idea with earlier cameras, I don’t have enough information on later cameras with both dual ASA/ DIN and metres/ feet scale knobs and certainly the 124G was sold in Japan in big numbers.
I have also found Sugiyama's book to be unhelpful with researching the Pigeonflex ID, e.g. he hasn't identified the Autoflex or Firstflex die cast models at all and the one Soligor model listed is noted as “maker unknown”.
It is not my intention to be critical of Sugiyama (or McKeown, who some believe has relied on Sugiyama) or to try to debunk him. The task he set himself was to compile a collector’s guide of Japanese cameras (there has been an awful lot of cameras) for collectors, not document the model history of Yashima/Yashica, and that he has done very well. However, for those interested in Pigeonflex and Yashima/Yashica TLRs, his book is not that useful.
In terms of Yashicas, one important legacy of his is the identification of the Yashica Auto 44 including the only known photograph.
For those that don’t know, Koichi Sugiyama is a classical trained musician and conductor who is famous for, and known as the godfather of, Japanese video games music. He is a busy and very talented man and photography and camera collecting are just two of his many hobbies when he is not composing, conducting or involving himself in politics.
As a postscript for anyone interested in the Yashica YE and YF 35 mm cameras or Nicca predecessors, the entries for these in Sugiyama's book are credited to Mikio Awano who also wrote the book's Foreword. In an article in the May 1985 edition of Japanese collector magazine, “Camera Collectors’ News”, Mikio Awano offered detailed and unusual information about the YE and YF standard and 13.5 cm telephoto lenses which I have not seen elsewhere but have been largely able to independently verify.