Japanese "Yen" cameras

In 1930 the Japanese company Tougodo manufactured a small box camera that sold for only one Yen. It was called the Tougo (Togo) camera and was named after Admiral Togo Heihachiro who defeated the Russian fleet at the battle of Tsushima in 1905. The Admiral gave the company permission to use his name after they approached him, because the Navy did not approve.

The Tougo's main selling feature, apart from the low price, was that the user could conveniently develop and print their own photographs using the supplied film and processing items. Camera distributors were approached, but refused to sell the Tougo camera which they considered a mere toy, so the company bought various shops in the country for direct selling. They also used toy, clock and radio shops as authorised dealers. As the film could be developed in daylight, sellers of Tougo cameras used to demonstrate the process in the street in front of their shops, washing the negative with ether and using an electric fan to speed up the washing and drying steps. “No-need-darkroom” was a line used in several advertisements and instruction sheets, it was also printed on the front of one of the later folding cameras.

Similar little box cameras were soon offered by other makers and became known as “Yen cameras”. A typical one is the Katei  made by Shashin Bijutsuin in 1931. It's quite a small camera measuring just 7cm x 8cm x 5cm and is made of wood with a textured paper covering. As well as a tiny reflecting viewfinder it has a ground glass screen in the back for direct viewing. Both ways of viewing give a fairly dim image that would be difficult to see even in bright outdoor light. The simple fixed focus lens has no diaphragm.

The Yen cameras were mostly sold as a kit with all the necessary items to develop and print the photographs: as well as film there was a printing frame, printing paper, developer, fixer and an instruction leaflet.

See photographs below 

The film packet was a single piece of film held inside an opaque paper sheath with a slide, it made a negative about 3x4 cm. The sheath was inserted into the slot in the camera and the slide drawn out before making an exposure.  The instruction sheet for the Baby Camera gives a range of recommended shutter speeds outdoors from 1/10th to 1 second. It would not have been easy to achieve those shutter speeds accurately as the shutter on most Yen cameras was just a “Bulb” setting. The instruction sheet for a Tougo camera states exposure times are from 1/10s to 7 seconds, and advice is given on how to obtain short exposures by hand: for example “1/5s should be obtained by pressing and immediately releasing the shutter button”.

The developer was coloured red, so the ortho film could be developed without being in the dark, although, as the the instruction sheet says, it should be used “in the place as gloomy as possible”. The film sheath was immersed face down in a flat dish of developer and the slide removed. “Important, not to let the film container float up on the surface of the water. Hold the back of it with finger or small stick”. Developing time was one minute, then the sheath was placed in another dish containing the green fixer solution. After another minute the sheath was pulled away and the piece of film left until it did not look milky - about three minutes. The negative could now be washed and pinned up to dry.

To make your little contact print the negative, together with a piece of printing paper“in a dark place” is placed into the printing frame. It was then exposed by holding it about 6 inches from a light bulb for 5 seconds. It could now be developed “until the taken appears” (about one minute) and fixed using the same chemicals as before. The entire process is helpfully illustrated on this instruction sheet.

Extra items were listed for the Baby Camera at these prices in 1931:

a dozen film, ¥0.50;     a bottle of developer, ¥0.30;

a bottle of fixer, ¥0.20;     two  dozen printing papers, for artificial light, ¥0.15;

one dozen printing papers, for natural light, ¥0.30.

These inexpensive little cameras with their unique home processing feature must have become quite popular, as a variety of Yen cameras were marketed in the period 1931-1941. Most of them were small box cameras, with and without a viewfinder. They were all very alike, some were different only in their nameplate. At least three brands were made for export: the Baby Camera, the Best Camera and the Super Camera all had instructions printed in English. McKeown (12th ed. page 1032) lists almost 40 Yen camera names!

Later in the 1930s a few manufacturers were offering cameras with an Instant shutter as well as Bulb with some having two viewfinders for horizontal and vertical use. They were mostly priced from ¥3 to ¥7. There were also some folding bellows style cameras offered. Tougodo made at least six different models, some with a larger image size of 5x7cm and costing around ¥15. They also made a pseudo TLR and an SLR with its mirror acting as a shutter.

Manufacture must have continued for a while after WWII as McKeown states that cameras have occasionally been found with the “Made in Occupied Japan” marking that was required on products made for export during 1947- 49.

Text and photographs ©2023 Geoff Harrisson