13 years of unswerving efforts

The birth of microscopes overseas

The microscope was invented by the Dutch spectacle maker Zaccharias Janssen around 1590. This was the time when Toyotomi Hideyoshi was unifying Japan into a single nation.
In 1655, the Englishman Robert Hooke produced a "compound microscope" that included an objective lens and an eyepiece lens. In 1665, he published Micrographia, the first book describing observations of a variety of organisms made through his microscope. In this book, Hooke named the numerous compartments partitioned by walls as "cells." The discovery of cells triggered the microscope's rapid advancement.
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek of Holland made his own simple microscopes using a single lens, which lead to his discovery of red blood cells in 1673, as well as the discovery of bacteria and human sperm.
Efforts to improve the microscope were made primarily in England in the 18th and 19th centuries. Microscopes developed by Leitz and Zeiss, both German companies, became popular in the last half of the 19th century and onward.

Asahi (1920)

The first microscope manufactured at Olympus was called the Asahi. Launched in March 1920, the Asahi was priced at 125 yen (about 1.25 million yen today) and was considered a highly valuable industrial product worthy of its price. It was the only model made of gunmetal, a bronze alloy made from copper and tin and used for cannon barrels.
The Asahi was marketed under the Tokiwa brand, not Olympus. It was named after Tokiwa Shokai, the firm that Yamashita had been previously associated with. Tokiwa Shokai held a stake in Takachiho Seisakusho, the forerunner of Olympus, and was also responsible for the marketing of Takachiho products at that time. The Olympus brand, which was to replace Tokiwa, was launched the following year in 1921.
In 1924, the company launched the New Asahi that could switch between two objective lenses mounted in a revolver.

Homare (1920)

The Homare was also launched in 1920. Unlike the Asahi that was made of gunmetal, the Homare microscope was made from brass (an alloy of copper and zinc). Following the launch of this product, brass microscopes became the mainstay.
Both the Asahi and the Homare microscopes featured an umbrella-shaped part in the upper column, called an umbrella-shaped fine tuning mechanism. At that time, microscopes were not equipped with a coarse motion mechanism (a mechanical mechanism to move the microscope head in order to focus the image). Therefore, there were two methods for focusing the image: (1) roughly matching the focus by manually moving the microscope head up and down and (2) accurately finding the focus using the umbrella-shaped fine tuning mechanism.

Fuji (1920)

The company also launched the Fuji in 1920, featuring an in-built coarse motion mechanism. The inclusion of both fine and coarse motion mechanisms allowed for easier focusing. Moreover, the Fuji used an Abbe condenser in its illumination optics.
The company started factory operations in 1920 with the following line-up of seven microscopes: Asahi (medical, sericulture applications), Homare (sericulture, primary/junior high school applications), Yamato A (medical, sericulture applications), Yamato B (medical, sericulture applications), Fuji (specialist medical applications), Heiwa (specialist medical applications), and Shori (specialist medical applications).
There was demand for high quality microscopes from the textile industry, Japan's core industry at the time, in order to research and test for silkworm diseases such as pebrine.

Mizuho GHA (1925)

The Shori microscope launched in 1920 was designed with an easily portable arm shape. The Mizuho GHA, launched in 1925, featured the same arm shape and had a square stage. It was a general-purpose microscope that could be used for bacteriological examinations and other applications.
In October 1929, the Wall Street crash triggered a global financial crisis. Against a backdrop of an ongoing global depression, the company won a major order for 600 microscopes from the Osaka Dental and Medical Technical College. This order not only improved the company's business prospects considerably, it also made a significant contribution to further advances in microscope technology.

Showa GK (1927)

The Showa GK biological microscope was launched in 1927. In the 1920s, the company was already marketing a biological microscope equipped with an oil immersion objective lens (a microscope requiring a drop of oil between the specimen and the objective lens for observations) that allowed total magnification of over 1000x. However, in terms of performance, this microscope failed to achieve the standard of microscopes made by German and other manufacturers. The foreign-made microscopes, while offering superior quality, were too expensive for ordinary researchers and doctors.
Requests for an affordable, high quality, practical oil immersion type microscope came from Seikichi Iwasaki, the first president of Iwasaki Microscopes Co., Ltd. (currently Iwaken Co., Ltd.). Takachiho Seisakusho thus undertook development of a new microscope with the cooperation of Iwasaki Microscopes Co., Ltd. With the enthusiasm and unwavering efforts of marketer and manufacturer working together closely to support the development, the new model was named after Showa, Japan's new chronological era.
The Showa GK microscope was, at that time, at the pinnacle of domestically produced microscopes. For Olympus, it was one of its milestone products, driving the future evolution of its microscope business.

Seika GE (1927)

The production of the Seika GE microscope began in 1927. Heralded as the crystallization of state-of-the art technologies, the Seika GE was considered the premier microscope, optimized for research applications. It employed a 100x oil immersion objective lens and was capable of total magnification of 1400x.
Around this time, companies began to launch microscopes equipped with a cross-shaped mechanical stage that allowed users to move the specimen north-south and east-west. The mechanical stage was 115mm in diameter and the microscope was equipped with an Abbe condenser. It also featured a rack-and-pinion mechanism to move the specimen up and down.
The Seika GE was displayed at the Tokyo Exhibition for the Promotion of Domestically Made Products in 1928. As a recipient of the outstanding domestic product award, the Seika was presented to the Emperor Showa. The pictured Seika GE microscope was the microscope the Emperor Showa used for his research until 1951, when he returned it to Olympus as a gift on the purchase of a new Olympus microscope.

Shared viewing microscope (1929)

The shared viewing microscope, launched in 1929, was used by students taking lab classes in university science departments and medical schools. Students took turns observing a specimen by handing the microscope from one person to another. The microscope did not come with a mirror; therefore, users had to orient the microscope toward a light source.

KA Portable Microscope (1934)

The KA Portable Microscope, released in 1934, was a simplified microscope designed for easy portability.
The stage and the base of the KA portable microscope could be folded up and transported in a leather case.