Although I've not confirmed the details about the company yet,
this single mantled kerosene lantern seems to be made by Japanese
company named "Dai-Nihon-Hakukosha Manufacturing".
It certainly has the appearance of an older Petromax of Germany
but my tentative conclusion at this moment
would be it was not just imported from foreign country.
As you can see the 3rd & 4th image, it has a plate on the side of
fount and shows its company name "Dai-Nihon-Hakukosha
Manufacturing" and model type "No.3".
The 5th image shows its inner chimney and interestingly it was fixed to top heat deflector by 2 bolts.
( I'm a bit skeptical if the later characteristic can distinguish Hakukosha lantern from the older Petromax though
as I've not confirmed all of the petromax inner chimneys. )
With regard to dating of this Hakukosha lantern, I suppose it was probably made in late 1930s or early 1940s. The reason why this is ; 1) literary style of Hakukosha lantern's operation manual ----
In Japan we had dramatically change in literary style after the WW2.
Since we Japanese had Militarism before & during the WW2, Occupation Forces in
those days had to change our thought to Democracy.
To begin with, they ordered us to revise school education system including text books.
Because education was very important factor to achieve their goal.
And in accordance with this revision ( new education law came into force in 1947 ),
our general literary style also had changed to more colloquial one which is similar to
we use today.
The literary style of Hakukosha's operation manual ( the 6th image ) is very old fashioned
and tells us that it was probably printed before above movement.
2) material of parts ----
This Hakukosha lantern has all brass fittings except its handle.
( By the way there's no marking at all on its parts. For example, vaporizer, jet, etc. )
During the WW2, brass was used heavily and later period of the WW2, we had not
enough brass to make even military equipment.
If we stand at an assumption that Hakukosha lantern was made before
the movement of literary style change, then it is reasonable to assume
that the lantern was made early period of the WW2 or even before.
I know above is still an assumption until we find out details of the company, "Dai-Nihon-Hakukosha" itself.
So far I could not succeed, I'd like to continue my research.
Thanks Alan Moore, Fil Graff, Neil McRae and Terry Marsh for their kind help and informative discussion regarding this unique lantern and thanks Tomohide Ishikawa for allowing me to quote his Hakukosha lantern to this page.
As of Dec. 2003.
Finally I've found the Hakukosha, a Japanese manufacturing company, and their brief history is as followings.
They were established in 1903 and had been manufacturing mainly kerosene lamps in their early stage.
From 1930s, their products gradually shifted to battery lamps for cars and railways.
In 1968, they were merged with Ichikawa Manufacturing and became Ichikoh Industries, LTD.
Ichikoh Industries are an existing big company ( they are listed in stock market ) and their headquarters has been located in Shinagawa, Tokyo, Japan.
Although most of their documents & records which tell us the detail of Hakukosha's kerosene lantern had already gone, my assumption was correct and Hakukosha's kerosene lanterns were not imported but they were manufactured by Japanese company named Hakukosha.
"Esuya" ( please pronounce it like "A-SUE-YAH" ) was one of the
Japanese manufacturers who had made pressure lanterns presumably
in 1950s.
According to their advertisement from Nikkei newspaper dated 1954
( left image ), their head office was located at Ginza, Chuo, Tokyo.,
and their factory was located at Hiratsukabashi, Shinagawa, Tokyo.
The center and right image from different sports magazine article shows
their pressure lantern named "Baron".
It seems to be a double mantled gasoline lantern and made with
carburetor valve.
I suppose Esuya should have made various pressure lamps & stoves
but I've not confirmed them yet except this "Baron" lantern.
"Kamishima Manufacturing" ( please pronounce it like "CAR-ME-SHE-MAR" ) was
also one of the Japanese manufacturers who had made pressure
lanterns presumably in 1950s, located at Kozimacho, Taito, Tokyo.
The left image below is their advertisement from Nikkei newspaper
dated Aug. 1954 and shows their pressure lamp.
It seems to be a single mantled kerosene wall bracket lamp
and Kamishima might have copied Tilley Models, say "Hospital
Lamp", when they manufactured their lamp.
The right image is their stove advertisement in 1962 and the 3rd image shows the same stove.
I suppose Kamishima also should have made various pressure lamps & stoves but I've not confirmed them yet except these
advertisement and a product.
The 2nd & 3rd images are quoted from Yoshihide Kimura's collection with his permission. Thanks Yoshihide.
The left is a Dura Camp Model 730 and the right is a Model 732.
Both have yellow painted steel fount and brown enameled ventilator.
Most of their parts are similar to Coleman Model 200 and Model 220 respectively.
Although I've not confirmed their manufacturer yet, as both Dura
Camp Models have a stamp "Japan" in the base, they seem to have
been made by Japanese manufacturer.
The left is a Camplete Model 7300 and the right is a Camplete
Model 7320. Both are quoted from Neil McRae's collection with
his permission.
They are almost identical with Dura Camp Model 730 & 732
respectively and from the similarities of construction and the
fact that in both cases Camplete model numbers are the same
as Dura-Camp with a 0 suffix, we assume they are from the same
manufacturer. Thanks Neil.
This is also a Camplete Model 7300.
Most of its parts are similar to Coleman Model 200A and were made of steel.
Although I've not confirmed the manufacturer yet, as it has a stamp "Japan" in the base, it seems to have been made by Japanese manufacturer.
The new information from this one is, it came with its original instruction paper and it has a name of "BOISE CASCADE CORPORATION" on it.
So, I've checked the company, the Boise Cascade Corporation on the net and found that they are an existing company in Idaho, USA and have their own web site.
According to their site, they seem to have not been a
manufacturing company and a reasonable estimation would be that they imported Camplete (& Dura Camp) lantern from a Japanese company and were responsible for marketing in US.
I asked one of my collector friend, Terry Marsh, to examine it.
He kindly worked soon but the company had already got rid of their records to avoid liability issues and could not find out the details of the story.
Who made this Camplete/Dura Camp lantern ? is unfortunately still in the dark.
Back to top page
Here is another variation of Rinnai lantern
( if you are not familiar with Rinnai, then please visit
"Rinnai : Japanese Pressure Lantern-2"
page in this site.)
and is quoted from
Neil McRae's collection with his permission.
Thanks Neil.
The image below is an advertisement from the Japan Industrial
Papers dated July 1954.
It shows a pressure lamp named "Silver Star" and "ASAHI SHOTEN CO., LTD"
seemed to be a sales agent of the lamp in those days.
In Japanese, "shoten" means "book store" and I don't think they
were the manufacturer of this lamp.
But.....Who made it ?
If it was imported from a foreign country then the price competitiveness of the product would have been very poor in those days. So I believe that it was made by a Japanese company, although so far I cannot confirm it.
The followings are explanations of the advertisement ;
Silver Star.
Fishing and Work Light.
Gasoline Gas Lamp.
Surprisingly bright and absolutely safe.
A newly invented portable work and fishing light
consisting of a lamp and an oil tank which are separate from each other.
Can be lighted readily with a match.
One "go" of fuel oil lasts for more than 3 hours and a single oil supply
is enough to keep the lamp on for 35 hours.
Weight: 4.5kg
Capacity of tank: 2800cc
100% efficient wherever it is used.
For fishing industry, engineering and other works, development work,
government offices, schools, miners, stores, households etc.
Catalogue furnished on application.
300 candle power.
ASAHI SHOTEN CO., LTD.
Head office: No.21, Higashi-Fukuda-cho, Kanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Tel: (66)1474, 1765, 5484
