Origin of the Minolta name

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Greg Beetham
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Origin of the Minolta name

Unread post by Greg Beetham »

An excerpt below from an interesting history of Minolta I stumbled over, the company was founded by Kazuo Tashima in 1928, originally as Nichi-Doku Shashinki Shoten (Japan-Germany Camera Company). The name was changed to Minolta in 1933.

"A new model introduced in 1933 first carried the Minolta brand name, a name Tashima created to sound like the Japanese word "minoru-ta," which means ripening rice field. The name reminded Tashima of a proverb his mother frequently used, meaning that the more successful one becomes, the more humble one must be: "The ripest ears of rice bow their heads lowest." The name, however, also has a Western meaning, as an acronym for Machinery and Instruments Optical by Tashima."

You can read a lot more about the Minolta history here. http://companies.jrank.org/pages/2818/M ... o-Ltd.html
Greg
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KevinBarrett
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Re: Origin of the Minolta name

Unread post by KevinBarrett »

I heard the man responsible for the "Kodak" name just really liked the letter "k." :D
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Greg Beetham
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Re: Origin of the Minolta name

Unread post by Greg Beetham »

Yes that's the way it looks alright, George E. and his Mum just made it up...I've lived all this time and never knew. :)
Greg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastman_Kodak#Kodak_name
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Dr. Harout
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Re: Origin of the Minolta name

Unread post by Dr. Harout »

Thanks for the links. Nice reading. :D
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