Toyoda Story

All good history lessons start out with a joke right? Well here goes...my most favorite joke when I was ten years old:

What kind of car does Luke Skywalker drive?

A To-yoda!

Get it? Both funny and witty, and surprisingly a great start to this little history lesson. The Toyota group that we know today was all started with the genius of Mr. Sakichi Toyoda (notice the spelling)...

Sakichi Toyoda
Picture taken from toyota-global.com

Born on February 14, 1867 in Kosai, Shizuoka, Mr. Toyoda was very interested in inventing from a young age. His father was a carpenter and his mother was a weaver so it seems only natural that his first goal was to improve the hand looms that his mother used. 

He invented his first Wooden Hand Loom in 1890, followed by the Power Loom, the Circular Loom, and the Automatic Loom in 1924. 

Graphic from toyota-industries.com

In 1926, Toyoda founded Toyoda Automatic Loom Works which became Toyota Industries Corporation which still produces automatic looms, engines, air compressors, and (most importantly) forklifts! Sakichi Toyoda passed away 1930 and he is considered the most famous Japanese inventor.

The Toyota Company that most Americans are familiar with is actually the automobile offshoot, Toyota Motor Corporation. Though Sakichi Toyoda was interested in automobiles, it was mainly due to the hard work of Kiichiro Toyoda, Sakichi's son who was the drive behind the research and design of the Toyota automobiles. Kiichiro began researching gas engines in 1930 and began work on the first Toyota automobile in 1933. Toyota Motors Co., Ltd (later Toyota Motor Corporation) was established in 1937.

So back to that Star Wars joke. Why did Mr. Toyoda change the name of the company. Well it wasn't Mr. Sakichi Toyoda, it was in fact in 1936, after his death. The graphics for this summary is taken from this article so please read that for a more in depth explanation. There was a design competition to create the new Toyota Motors logo, seen below. 

 

The difference between writing Toyoda and Toyota in Katakana is these two dashes seen at the end of the character.
 

To create the new Toyota logo takes eight strokes which is a number that symbolize progression, forward growth, so the decided to adopt this name change. Pretty neat-o.

So why this sudden burst of information on Toyota? I was lucky enough to go to the Toyota Museum in Nagoya.

All biases aside, it was one of the coolest museums I have been to. It was incredibly interactive with buttons and levers and cranks - perfect for children...and the child inside of everyone! Some of my favorite pictures attached.

Working Model of the Circular Loom

Kariya!

 

 

Forklift!