Who was Takuma Kajiwara?
If you google on his name you get numerous hits on links to camera/photo sites (including this forum) with about the same info: "...he was a painter/photographer related to the head of Pentas (Asahi Optical Company), and when Pentax begun to make 135mm SLR cameras of their own, they named the lenses "Takumar" after him...". We all know this, but if you try to find out anything more, it is not all that easy. As often, the web repeats the same information over and over again. Also incorrect (des)information, like those sites that claim that he designed the first Takumar lenses.
I thought we should have a thread dedicated to Takuma, his life, career, and the connections to Pentax, and the rest of the Kajiwara/Matsumoto family. I have managed to dig up some more information than the ordinary internet junk, from real old-fashioned analog sources, like newspapers and different U.S. registers, and some Japanese links (where it would be great if someone that can read Japanese without google translate could help out). There is also not so easy to find copies of his artistic works (photographs and paintings) on the web, especially the paintings. So if some of you American fellow forum members live close to those institutes/museums that is supposed to own some of his works, it would be great if you could take this as an excuse for an excursion and share with us what you find out. And most of all, I suspect there may be a large amount of information available in Japan, and maybe some Japanese member can help us with this. Anyone interested?
So lets start somewhere:
"...Kajiware was the third of five brothers in a Samurai family. Knowing that the eldest son would retain the family title...Kajiwara decided to travel the world."
This comes from a 1951 news paper interview.
We know of course the name of one of these brothers: Kumao Kajiware, the founder of Pentax. And he was not the eldest son either. BTW, does anyone know the birth and death years and dates of Kumao? I just can't find them.
There was all the time this other Kajiwara..."Kango Kajiwara", who's paintings turned up and irritated me when I was trying to find paintings by Takuma. When I finally found the New York times obituary for Takuma, it turned out that Kango was one of the other brothers, who became a painter at the Japanese emperors court. Quite an artistic family!
Regarding the other two brothers, if there isn't anyone else who know who they are, I will come back to a theory about the oldest one. And I also believe that there must be at least one sister, for obvious reasons.
As for birth and death dates for Takuma:
He was born on the 15th November 1876 (so it is soon his birthday!)
The evidence appear in a couple of places, but the best is probably this record from the "Index to Petitions for Naturalization filled in New York City, nr7181920" :
He died on March 11, 1960, in New York. From New York Times March 12:
Another surprisingly difficult problem have been to find a portrait of him. A portrait of a portraitist.
This is a self portrait titled "Self Consultation" from about 1950, unfortunately just a black and white newspaper reproduction:
Does anyone know about other pictures of him, for example when he was younger, or while he is working etc.?
Last edited by Douglas_of_Sweden; 11-10-2011 at 08:31 AM.