Doi (retailer)
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was a large Japanese retailer and distributor, best known outside Japan as the company that revived the
Plaubel Makina The Plaubel Makina was a series of medium format press cameras. Makina cameras had leaf shutters and rangefinder focusing with collapsible bellows, except for the specialized 69W Proshift model. The original Makina was manufactured by Plaubel & C ...
67 camera in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Its roots go back to Doi Shōten (), also referred to as Doi Shōkai (). This was a Japanese retailer, distributor, or both, that started in 1949. (''Doi'' here is a surname, ''shōten'' means "retailer", and ''shōkai'' means "trading company".) In the early fifties it was based in
Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...
. Kimio Doi (, ''Doi Kimio''), son of the Mr. Doi of Doi Shōten, started a branch in Fukuoka at some time around 1956. In 1959 this became plain Doi (, ''Kabushiki Kaisha Doi''). Doi provided diverse services, such as professional darkroom work. Retail stores were branded "Camera no Doi" (, ''Kamera no Doi''); these were known for the array of used cameras as well as competitive prices of new equipment. By the 1980s, Doi was as large a presence as
Yodobashi Camera is a major Japanese retail chain specializing in electronics, PCs, cameras and photographic equipment. Yodobashi Camera's sales rank fourth among consumer electronics mass retailers in Japan, after Yamada Denki, Bic Camera and the EDION Gro ...
in the
Nishi-Shinjuku is a skyscraper business district in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. This region was previously called . Nishi-Shinjuku was Tokyo's first major foray into building skyscrapers with the first appearing in the 1970s with Keio Plaza Inter-Continental. It ...
area of west-central
Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
. Its sales peaked in March 1989. However, it faltered in the 1990s and closed down in 2003. Doi Technical Photo seems to have survived this, even running a photography gallery in
Yūrakuchō is a business district of Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan, situated in between the Ginza and Hibiya Park, southeast of the Tokyo Imperial Palace. The district takes its name from Oda Nagamasu (1547–1622), who was also known as Yūraku (有楽). Oda Naga ...
,Gallery description
(via Wayback; in Shift-JIS). but as of 2006, it appears to be defunct.


Notes

The Kimio Doi company a NYC office ( head quarters at 15 East 42nd Street ). Operationally DOI INC and DOI U.S.A. INC. ... also 7 hour Photo..!!


Sources

* Asahi Camera () editorial staff. ''Shōwa 10–40nen kōkoku ni miru kokusan kamera no rekishi'' (, Japanese camera history as seen in advertisements, 1935–1965). Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1994. . Item 418. * Hagiya Takeshi (). "Makina 67: Ribaibaru shita jabara-kamera" (, Makina 67: A bellows camera revival). Chapter 10 of Zunō kamera tanjō: Sengo kokusan kamera jū monogatari (, The birth of the Zunow camera: Ten stories of postwar Japanese camera makers). Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 1999. Consumer electronics retailers of Japan Defunct retail companies Defunct companies of Japan Photographic retailers Retail companies disestablished in 2003 Photography companies of Japan Retail companies established in 1949 Retail companies of Japan Japanese companies established in 1949 Japanese companies disestablished in 2003 {{japan-company-stub