Why is my Pentax LX engraved with the name of famous Japanese photographer Masaaki Nakagawa?

Really fascinating question, I felt compelled to look into it to find out!

I'd say there are 3 possible answers to this:

1. The most likely answer: Pentax engraved the first owners name (Masaaki Nakagawa in this case) on the camera before shipping it to them.

   • Evidence suggests that Pentax would sometimes engrave the owners name on a new camera before shipping it to them. Here's some screenshots:
   • https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-serial-number-database/?do=viewserials&id=204&page=2

2. Possible but unlikely: Masaaki Nakagawa had it engraved by a third party.

   • It seems within reason that a famous photographer in the mid-1900's, after purchasing a high-end and expensive camera, would get his name engraved it. This could help identify his belongings and discourage theft.

3. Possible: One of the previous owners (not Masaaki Nakagawa) engraved the name on it.

   • This could possibly be to make it look as though it was once owned by a famous photographer and thus increase the value dramatically. However if this had happened, I'd have thought it would have been marketed to you as belonging to Masaaki Nakagawa himself. Without marketing the feature, there would have been no point in doing it.

EDIT: I messaged the Pentax guru, Eric Hendrickson, and he shed some light on this. Honeywell (the original US importer and distributor of Pentax) apparently used to treat any staff retiring on their 30th year to a camera with their name engraved on the back. He's seen a fair few come to him for repair, so while each engraved name would be unique, yours wouldn't be the only camera with the engraving.

However this introduces some more questions - If your camera was a Honeywell camera, it's logo should state "Honeywell Pentax" as per this Wiki page:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentax_Spotmatic So there's more questions - what brand is the camera, a Honeywell or an Asahi? If it's a Honeywell, why would a Japanese photographer work for the US branch of the company when the Japanese Asahi branch is in his own country? Or did Asahi also do the name engraving service? Either way, I can't find mention of Masaaki Nakagawa being employed by Pentax or any of it's subsidiaries.

A further conversation with Eric might clear it up of course. But either way, you have a very nice little piece of history there, it's almost definite the name is genuine and that your camera was owned by the famous photographer when new. Best of luck and happy shooting!