{"id":5409,"date":"2016-05-11T22:04:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-11T22:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ericpetr.net\/blogue\/what-is-the-relationship-between-nikon-nikkor\/"},"modified":"2024-08-23T12:47:44","modified_gmt":"2024-08-23T12:47:44","slug":"what-is-the-relationship-between-nikon-nikkor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ericpetr.net\/en\/blogue\/what-is-the-relationship-between-nikon-nikkor\/","title":{"rendered":"WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NIKON NIKKOR?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Nikon F3 and Nikkor-Q 135mm f2.8 (1965)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What is the relationship between the brand names Nippon Kogaku, Nikkor and Nikon? A purely personal analysis rooted in Japanese writing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Explanations…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NIKON Company was created in 1917 following a merger of three major Japanese optics groups under the name Nippon K\u014dgaku K\u014dgy\u014d \u65e5\u672c\u5149\u5b66\u5de5\u696d (Japanese Optics SA).
If we unpack, it comes to: \u65e5\u672c Nippon (Japan) \u5149\u5b66 K\u014dgaku (Optics) \u5de5\u696d K\u014dgy\u014d (Industry).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was only in 1945, after the war, that the company decided to launch a program for the production of cameras and spectacle lenses.
Between 1945 and 1946, tests were launched and the company moved towards marketing its first camera, under the name NIKON 1, which was actually marketed for a year in 1948, followed shortly afterwards, in 1949, by a second model, the NIKON M.
It was 40 years after giving this name to its first camera, that the firm Nippon K\u00f4gaku K\u00f4gy\u00f4 \u65e5\u672c\u5149\u5b66\u5de5\u696d took the trade name NIKON \u30cb\u30b3\u30f3 Corporation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the name NIKKOR \u30cb\u30c3\u30b3\u30fc\u30eb came long before the firm Nippon K\u00f4gaku K\u00f4gy\u00f4 changed its name to NIKON \u30cb\u30b3\u30f3 in 1988.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The name NIKKOR \u30cb\u30c3\u30b3\u30fc\u30eb was registered in 1931 to identify its new line of lenses for photography, whose production was used in particular to supply lenses to the LEICA, CONTAX and then CANON companies until 1947.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But why and how was the name NIKKOR chosen at the time (1931), and what does it mean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NIKKOR comes from the contraction of Nippon K\u00f4gaku, and an “R” has been added to the end of the new name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To understand the obviousness of this contraction, we need to look at the interplay of Kanjis (Japanese characters or letters) that occurs.
Indeed, if the explanation doesn’t make sense with Western characters, it becomes much more eloquent when reading Japanese characters or kanji.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me explain.
Nippon K\u00f4gaku \u65e5\u672c\u5149\u5b66, comes from \u65e5\u672c (japan) and \u5149\u5b66 (lenses), which gives: “Japanese optics”.
The contraction results from the subtraction of two kanji from the initial name of the firm.
We start from, \u65e5(\u672c)\u5149(\u5b66), Ni(ppon) K\u014d(gaku) or Japanese optics, to arrive at the following contraction, \u65e5\u5149 (Nikk\u014d) which means: “sunbeam”.
We suddenly understand better this subtle transformation which, for someone who knows how to read Japanese, becomes obvious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, simply apply a new spelling to this name, borrowing from another Japanese writing system (Katakana), to obtain with the same phonetics and the same word “Nikk\u014d” \u65e5\u5149 but written:
\u30cb\u30c3\u30b3\u30fc and add to it, an “R” or “\u30eb” to obtain the final result: NIKKOR \u30cb\u30c3\u30b3\u30fc\u30eb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The name NIKON, which was found 17 years later for his first camera, NIKON (model no. 1), follows the same logic.
The difference is that the double “K” (or small \u30c3) disappears, and the “R” (\u30eb) at the end of the NIKKOR name is replaced by an “N” (\u30f3).
Thus, NIKKOR \u30cb\u30c3\u30b3\u30fc\u30eb becomes NIKON \u30cb\u30b3\u30f3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By borrowing the Katakana syllabary to write the names NIKKOR and NIKON, the Japanese writing system used to write foreign words, was the Nippon K\u014dgaku K\u014dgy\u014d firm, even back then, showing its desire to make the excellence of its know-how known the world over?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The NIKON Company was founded in 1917 following a merger of three major Japanese optics groups under the name Nippon K\u00f4gaku K\u00f4gy\u00f4 \u65e5\u672c\u5149\u5b66\u5de5\u696d (Japanese Optics SA). It was only in 1945, after the war, that the company decided to launch a program for the production of cameras and spectacle lenses. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[231],"tags":[86,249,248,250,232],"class_list":["post-5409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-japan","tag-nikkor-en","tag-nikon-en","tag-nippon-kogaku-en","tag-notes-on-photography"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericpetr.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericpetr.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericpetr.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericpetr.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericpetr.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5409"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericpetr.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5413,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericpetr.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5409\/revisions\/5413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericpetr.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericpetr.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericpetr.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}