JCII Camera Museum--and "Atsuhime" trivia

[julianphotoart]

Anyone visited the JCII Camera Museum in Tokyo? I went there a few weeks ago. Fantastic, though small, place. Many many interesting cameras. No photos of those interesting cameras was allowed, however.

Anyone else been to the museum? JCII is part of JCIA. These folks are responsible for those oval gold stickers that used to be on all exported Japanese camera products way-back-when.

For anyone who's familiar with the NHK year-long serial "Atsuhime" that's currently playing, the JCII museum had the camera that was used in the show to take the photos of the Shogun and Atsuhime. The museum had a print of the Atsuhime character made from a negative produced by that camera. The camera dates from 1865.

Some of the most interesting cameras on display at the museum were:

Yallu TLR
Look RF
Tanyflex
Arco 35 (aka View Arco)
Rittreck 6x9
Samocaflex 35 (TLR)
Koniflex II (TLR)
Yashica Rapide (1/2 frame TLR)
Convertible Horseman
Auto Press Minolta

I especially liked the Rittreck 6x9. Rittreck was the predecessor of Wista. A really well-made 6x9 SLR.

They also had a fair share of strange, first-generation digital image capture devices which some might find interesting.

 

[oftheherd]

Sounds like an interesting place. Also an interesting series on NHK. I would love to visit the museum. Is it free?

 

[julianphotoart]

It was only Y300. And I forgot to mention before that they have a great library and, next door, a nice exhibition space. When I was there, they had a very interesting B&W real photography exhibit and a truly terrible digital photography exhibit. The gift shop in the exhibition space is even good and has some unusual stuff.

The address is 25 Ichiban-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo. It's about 2 blocks from the Hanzomon subway stop.

 

[maddoc]

Thanks for the info, I will try to visit there next time I am in Tokyo. I think that I have seen the episode with the photo taken of the Shogun and Atsushime just recently on NHK ! 🙂

 

[steamer]

Looks great think I'll go there this week.

 

[jonmanjiro]

I visited this museum a few years ago. Well worth the 300 yen admission fee.

http://www.jcii-cameramuseum.jp/