We have created a new page “Brand Contents,” a page of content for all to read about the SWANS brand!
I thought about what to write on the new page, but first of all, I would like to introduce the history of the SWANS brand.
So, in this article, a staff member who has been with the company for three years will introduce the history of Yamamoto Kogaku and SWANS in five articles, based on the information obtained from our predecessors and documents stored in the company. Vol. 1 will tell the story of SWANS from its foundation to the prewar period.
Founder Seiji Yamamoto (second from the left) and second president Kenji Yamamoto (second from the right)
Departure from Lens Processing Industry
The history of Yamamoto Kogaku started in 1911 in Osaka as “Yamamoto Eyeglass Lens Manufacturing,” a lens processing industry.
The founder, Haruji Yamamoto, was born in Takefu City, Fukui Prefecture. After graduating from elementary school, he moved to Tokyo and became an apprentice at a wholesaler that dealt in oil lamps, smoke detectors, and eyeglasses.
At the recommendation of an acquaintance, he later worked for an eyeglass wholesaler in Osaka, where he learned lens processing techniques.
In 1909, at age 22, he got married, and his first son was born, Kenji Yamamoto, who became the second president of the company.
The company around 1935
Founds Yamamoto Spectacle Lens Manufacturing company.
Yamamoto Kogaku was founded two years later in 1911.
Haruji established the company in Osaka City under the name of “Yamamoto Optical Lens Manufacturing Company”.
In 1914, the company moved to the countryside of Osaka City. The company started as a factory that was both a workplace and residential home, with Haruji and two workers working in a tin-roofed workplace built in the garden of his home.
However, when the 1930s Showa economic depression hit, life did not get easier no matter how hard they worked. Even the little Kenji helped out in the family business, but it was a difficult time for them.
Celluloid dust-proof glasses of the day
New ideas concerning dust-proof glasses
At a time when the company was faced with a lack of work, suddenly it began to receive an increasing number of orders for dust-proof eyewear with lenses in celluloid frames, which are said to be the world's first plastic.
However, celluloid eyewear at that time left celluloid marks around the eyes when worn for long hours.
Therefore, Haruji designed the eyewear by bending the part of the frame that touches the face with heat so that the mark would not be left behind.
This ingenuity with the wearer in mind was the beginning of the “Comfortable Safety” manufacturing that is the foundation of Yamamoto Kogaku today.
The company around 1943
Established “Yamamoto Dust-proof Eyewear Manufacture” in Higashi-Osaka City
In 1935, the company moved its factory to Higashi-Osaka City, where the current head office is located, and established, Yamamoto Dust-Proof Eyewear Manufacturing Company. The company strengthened its production of protection eyewear, which would lead to its subsequent development.
The SWAN trademark and an admiration for overseas
To promote sales of his products, Kenji made regular trips to the Port of Kobe, where overseas trade was thriving at the time, to conduct walk-in sales.
At that time, the largest volume of products handled in Kobe and considered a sign of high quality were foreign-made dustproof eyewear with a drawing of a swan and the word “SWAN” engraved on a wooden box.
This “SWAN mark” used on products was the realization of Kenji's longing for “One day I would like to sell high-quality products to the world” that Kenji himself had in mind.
Isn't the Swan mark just plain cute even when we see it now?
Some of us in the company call it “Swan-chan.
So far, I have talked about the history of Yamamoto Kogaku from its foundation to the prewar period.
In the next article, I would like to talk about the period from wartime to the postwar rebuilding of the business.
