Masashige Tomioka

Ome City Cultural Properties News

No. 360

October 15, 2017

Published by Ome City Cultural Properties Protection Instructor Liaison Council

Ome City Local Museum (1-684 Komaki Cho, Ome City TEL 0428-23-6859)

Tomioka Masashige Tomioka Kogaku and Mr. Tomioka Masashige

"Kyocera Optec Co., Ltd”, located in Osoki 3-chome, Ome City, is widely known worldwide as an optical equipment manufacturer that designs and manufactures lenses and optical equipment. The current company name was adopted in 1991, and until then it was Tomioka Optical Co., Ltd.

The founder of Tomioka Optics is Tomioka Masashige (1888-1968). He was born in Tomioka Village, Nishitama County, Kanagawa Prefecture, as the second son of Tokisaburo Tomioka, the head of the village, and Nuiko. After graduating from Tomioka Village Tomioka Elementary School, which was located in what is now the Tomioka Daiichi Children's Park. After a while, he entered the Tokyo Physical School (currently Tokyo University of Science) and graduated in 1913. After graduating, he worked at the Army Artillery engineering factory, before being discharged from the military in 1917 and taking a job at Nippon Kogaku Kogyo (now Nikon). In 1924, he was appointed president of "Tomioka Optical Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd.", which was founded in Yukigaya, Omori Ward, and "Tomioka Optical Research Institute", which was founded in Ogawa-cho, Ebara Ward.

After the Tomioka Optical Machinery works succeeded in designing and manufacturing high-quality lenses in 1932, the production of optical weapons for the army and navy gradually increased, and in 1943, The factory was expanded to Ofuna, Kanagawa Prefecture. Mass production began, but as the war situation worsened, in 1944 the farm was moved to Kasumura Shinmachi Uekigai (north of Ozaku Station, the location of Metropolitan Seimei Gakuen, 72 Shinmachi 3-chome, Ome City). ), most of the factory was evacuated. Seven factories were built on the vast grounds, facing south, with three in the center and two on each side. Meanwhile, the president's wife was from Osoki Village, so they rented an unused textile factory and dyeing factory owned by the Osoki Agricultural Cooperative Association, evacuated part of the factory, and built submarine periscope and manufactured a variety of lenses used in the sights of Zero fighter aircraft. In May 1945, the factory in Yukigaya was destroyed in an air raid. In August of the same year, due to the end of the war, the company was designated as a special accounting company and dismantled.

In May 1949, Mr. Masashige Tomioka relaunched Tomioka Optical Machinery Manufacturing in Osoki Village with capital of 200,000 yen and 15 employees to manufacture lenses for various cameras. At that time, there were very few jobs available in Osoki Village, or even in the surrounding villages, so the resumption of operations was very welcome. As operations progressed smoothly, the number of employees reached nearly 200 in 1952. The starting wage for employees who joined the company after graduating from school was 12 yen per hour. Company housing was also built nearby.

In 1956, company president Masashige Tomioka co-translated with Kogoro Yamada a book entitled Prism and Lens Construction Methods, written by F. Twyman, in order to pass on superior techniques to future generations as a book. The following year, he co-authored ``Lens Aberration Theory'' with Seiji Nakamura, both published by Munetaka Shobo. These books are not kept at the National Diet Library or my alma mater, Tokyo University of Science. ``Research on Prism and Lens Construction Methods'' is stored in the Library of the Faculty of Engineering, the University of Tokyo, and ``Lens Aberration Theory'' is stored in the Astronomy Library, Faculty of Science, the University of Tokyo. Each one of his books is his only one preserved. They were probably all purchased by engineers upon publication.

Portrait of Masashige Tomioka

In 1958, a huge stone monument was donated to the entrance of the old approach to Anraku-ji Temple.

In 1960, Nippon Eiga Kikai Co., Ltd. was established, and Tomioka Kogaku became a subsidiary of the company as it was a business partner. (Note, Nippon Eiga Kikai Co., Ltd. was established in 1958 by J. Osawa Group and Tomioka became a subsidiary in 1960, according to J. Osawa Group website. Possibly a translation error.)

The company gradually expanded due to the post-war economic recovery and high economic growth, and in February 1968, the company name was changed to ``Tomioka Optical Co., Ltd.''. In June of this year, founder Masashige Tomioka passed away at the age of 81.

Tomioka Optical continued to grow, and by 1974 it had approximately 600 employees, and its annual sales amounted to approximately 3 billion yen. However, due to the effects of the oil shock that occurred at the end of 1973, business conditions deteriorated rapidly, and approximately 200 employees were subsequently forced to retire, causing chaos at the production site.

From around this time, mergers and cross-shareholdings among companies became active, and in 1983, Yashica, the parent company of Tomioka Optical, was merged into the Kyocera Group. Eight years later, in 1991, the company name was changed to “Kyocera Optec Co., Ltd.,” which remains the name to this day.

Although the company name has changed, the technology that was founded by Mr. Masashige Tomioka has maintained a world-class level and continues to grow.

If you open the Internet's ``Celebrity Navi, alma mater edition,'' you will find a list of graduates of Tokyo University of Science who have become famous for their achievements in politics, education, or economics. Out of a total of 158 people, Masashige Tomioka is listed 14th.

(Written by Kiyomi Tsunoda)