The main branch of Camera Taiyodo was at 1-10 Kanda-Jimbocho crossing in Chiyodo Tokyo. There were also three satellite stores in the Akasaka Tokyu Hotel, at Terminal 1 of Narita International Airport, and facing Shijuku Station in Tokyo. In no particular order, here are details of other Camera Taiyodo outlets that may (or may not) have been outposts of the original shop.
*) Headquarters, 43 Miyamoto-cho, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo
I haven't given this one a number because it wasn't a shop, but an administrative headquarters. The address appeared on this very amateur-looking Japanese advert for the Lightomatic III, which presumably dates to 1961/2. Another advertisement for the Beautyflex T and Beauty IIIS (so dating to about 1954) reads "Taiyodo Koki Co., Ltd. Head Office & Factory 366 Shimura-Shimizu-cho, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo. Sales Office: 1-12 Kanda-Jimbocho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo.
Miyamoto-cho is in an area of Tokyo that seems to be a mixture of residential and small office-based businesses with a few scattered shops. Number 43 appears to be a larger sub-divided building known today as "Sophia". I have been unable to locate Shumura-Shimizu-cho on a current-day map.
1) Camera Taiyodo Kabukicho District in Shinjuku, Tokyo
I stumbled upon this Japanese Blog($) that describes a 2001 tour of the Kabukicho district's second hand camera shops. The area is better known as an entertainment (red light) district. The accompanying photo was tiny, but I managed to find a more detailed picture, apparently taken in August 2000 (see Figure 1). The red/black on white horizontal banners and window canopy definitely say Camera Taiyodo. My instinct is that this was probably a bona fide branch of the Chiyoda store. Other Tokyo outlets tended to be in areas of high footfall (airports, stations and hotels). I can find no other records, and assume that the shop is long gone.
2) Camera of Taiyodo Mito City, Ibaraki
Mito is the capital city of Ibaraki Prefecture. A shop called Camera "of" Taiyodo (カメラ の 太陽堂) was located at 3-4-21 Minamimachi, Mito-shi, Ibaraki (Figure 2A). It specialised development, printing, photo ID, and had a website (Figure 2B), which announced the stores closure on 7th July 2017. According to "the Wayback Machine", the website was first captured in 2012.
3) Camera of Taiyodo Omachi City, Nagano
Camera of Taiyodo Omachi (Figure 3) was found via a 2008 Blog($). Note that the Japanese language doesn’t have an exact equivalent of the English preposition “of”, and の can translate as “no”, but its meaning is to indicate possession, location, or origin. The store appears to be open for business today.
4) Camera Taiyodo Ueda, Nagano
I found the Ueda (Figure 4 - 1 Chome-3-10 Tenjin, Ueda, Nagano) shop through a search engine, while researching the Omachi City outlet, but have been unable to establish any further information. Seemingly this store also appears to be active today.
5) Camera Taiyodo Forest Photo Studio Katori City, Chiba
Another Camera Taiyodo store is in Katori City, Chiba Prefecture (Figures 5A & 5B). The store's website promotes printing including photobooks, image correction, photo ID, commercial photography, studio hire, and (OMG this is creepy to Westerners) pre-death portraits. The page says ... "Let's have fun shooting with your favourite things, in your favourite outfit." The website was published in July 2017, has not been updated since, but the company appears to still be operating today.
6) Camera Taiyodo, Morimachi, Ofunato City, Iwate
This shop has a very well documented history. The image at Figure 6A is from an undated publication by the "Iwate Prefectural* Federation of Small Business Associations". According to the document properties (accessed via right click), the article was published in December 2017.
* Japan is divided into 47 administrative divisions known as Prefectures, and Ofunato is in the Iwate Prefecture. The city became internationally famous when it was hit by a tsunami, caused by the Valdivia earthquake in Chile, on 22 May 1960.
The publication reads that -
Under the Directorship of Hidekatsu Sato, the company Camera Taiyodo Co Ltd opened a photography shop in Ofunato Town (Ofunato City) in 1958 (Showa 33).
The shop was damage by the 1960 (Showa 35) tsunami and the business moved to Morimachi, Ofunato City. In 1996 (Heisei 8,) it opened a second store at Sanria Shopping Centre in Morimachi.
In March 2011 a Magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck off the northeast coast of Japan, and the force caused a tsunami that wiped away entire towns and villages: 20,000 lives were lost.
In the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 (Heisei 23), the main store was destroyed by the tsunami, and the shopping centre store destroyed by the earthquake. After the disaster, they bought used equipment from various places and resumed business at both the head office and the shopping centre store.
The business is described as photo development and printing, studio photography, ID photography, photo and video equipment, and sales of photography-related supplies. Most of the document is otherwise trivia.
The March 2011 tsunami damage to the main store is confirmed by "Cassie's 2012 Blog($)" and "Nippon Broadcasting Online News($)", which ran a 2017 follow-up story on the fate of the Camera Taiyodo store in Ofunato City. The latter reported that -
Mr. Sato (Hidekatsu) - 51 years old in 2011 - was the second generation owner, and his father had run a photo shop in Ofunato Town, which was washed away by the Chile earthquake and led to the opening of a new store in Morimachi. In 2011, the first floor of the main shop had been submerged in seawater, and all the equipment ruined, but nevertheless was re-opened two months later (see Figure 6B).
If I have read this content correctly, it reports that Mr Sato spent that year cleaning mud from photos of the deceased, and then modifying their everyday clothes into suits and kimonos. Once again, this shop appears to be currently trading.
7) Taiyodo Camera, Machinami, Shinshiro, Aichi
This shop was one listed in the results of a Google map search for 太陽堂 カメラ. There is no information other than an address, street view, and the suggestion that the place may be closed? The street view has images taken between 2013 and 2023, but in each the shutters are down, except for 2017 (Figure 7) and 2013. In these images the shutters are half open, and the shop window displays flowers rather than cameras.
Figure 1 - Camera Taiyodo store in the Kabukicho District of Shinjuku Tokyo (image from Twitter).
Figure 2A - web page image of the Camera store Mito City.
Figure 2B - screenshot of the Camera "of" Taiyodo website in Mito City. Click on the image to go to the website($).
Figure 3 - Camera "of "Taiyodo store in Ocachi City, Nagano from Google Street View($) (July 2023).
Figure 4 - Camera "of "Taiyodo store in Ueda, Nagano from Google Street View($)(July 2023).
Figure 5A - Camera Taiyodo Forest Photo Studio shop in Katori City from Google Street View($) (July 2023).
Figure 5B - screenshot of the Camera Taiyodo Forest Photo Studio website in Katori City. Click on the image to go to the website ($).
Figure 6A - Camera Taiyodo in Ofunato City. December 2017 article published by the Federation of Small Business Associations. Click the image to go to the full size document ($).
Figure 6B - Camera Taiyodo at Iwate Prefecture, Ofunato City, Morimachi Aza Uchinome 2-9, from Google Street View($) (July 2023). I can find no further information on, or images of, the shopping centre store.
Figure 7 - Taiyodo Camera at Shinshiro, in Aichi Prefecture, from Google Street View($) (June 2017), in which the shop window can clearly be seen to display pot plants.
