Originally Posted by
nlerner
Very good. You have done some actual research.
I have seen the pictures of this bicycle before.
Yes, the person that made the post said the bicycle is Tano.
I have seen nothing on the bicycle that indicates H. Tano and Company, but maybe I missed something.
How have you verified that the bicycle frame was manufactured by H. Tano and Company?
The bicycle may have been assembled by H. Tano and Company.
There are no pictures of the serial number which would be helpful with verification.
There are too many unanswered questions about this bicycle for it to be considered definitive proof of H. Tano and Company as a manufacturer.
I have not seen this brochure before. The seller is in Argentina.
South America is one place that I did not look for H. Tano and Company information, but I should have.
It would be nice to know what year the brochure is from.
Mr. Tatsuzo Ueda of Kansai University in Osaka Japan wrote a paper entitled "The Development of the bicycle industry in Japan After World War II", published in 1981. In this paper he shows that in 1957 the three geographic regions that received the most exports of Japanese bicycles and parts were: Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America. So, it is not surprising to see this brochure in Argentina. H. Tano and Company specialized in exporting bicycles and South America was a place that was accepting Japanese bicycles and parts.
However the brochure does not say who assembled or manufactured the bicycles.
C. Itoh and Company were also a Japanese trading company that exported bicycles. C. Itoh and Company exported many bicycles with their name on the marquee.
Did C. Itoh ever manufacture bicycle frames?
This H. Tano and Company brochure from Argentina is very interesting, but it is not proof that the Japanese exporter H. Tano and Company manufactured bicycles.