Canon cameras: not named for a weapon of war, but for the Buddhist Goddess of Compassion

When I polled some of my photographer friends as to why the company that makes Canon cameras picked that name, most thought it was based on that old weapon of war, the cannon. Maybe because cannons “shoot” cannon balls, and what we do with cameras is called “shooting” too.

But it turns out they were wrong. Canon cameras are named for the Buddhist Goddess of Compassion. Nowadays we transliterate the Goddess’ name in English as Guanyin, but back in the early 1900s it was common to transliterate it as Kuanyin, Kwannon, or Kwanon.

One of the four founders of Canon, a man named Goro Yoshida, was in charge of designing the camera and, being a devout Buddhist, chose Kwanon as the name for their first product. The company itself was named Seikikōgaku kenkyūsho at the time — Japanese for Precision Optical Industry Company. It officially changed its name to Canon in 1947.

The Buddhist naming convention extended to the lens too. Before releasing the actual camera, while still working on the prototype, the company ran ads in Asahi Camera magazine. In the June 1934 issue they had an artist illustration of their upcoming camera, shown with a Kasyapa F3.5 50 mm lens. “Kasyapa” is the name of one of the ancient Buddhas who preceded the final historical one, Gautama Buddha.

The first logo of Canon showed a picture of the Guanyin. Looking at one of the prototypes preserved in Canon’s museum at their headquarters, we can see that logo engraved on the top plate of the camera.

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