Biography

Sakichi Toyoda: Bio, and The Story of Founder Toyota

Sakichi Toyoda is the founder of Toyota, the largest automotive company in the world, and it is based in Japan. He was a Japanese industrialist. Toyoda was the son of a poor carpenter. However, in Japan, the founder of Toyota is called the “King of Japanese Inventors”. Sakichi Toyoda’s career is often referred to as the father of Japan’s industrial revolution. Toyoda devoted his life to studying and developing textile assembly. What’s the story?

Sakichi Toyoda Biography

Sakichi Toyoda was born on February 14, 1867, in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. He is the son of Ikichi and Ei Toyoda. Ikichi is a farmer who lives in poverty. He also worked as a carpenter to support his family. However, his abilities as a carpenter were very skilled. So from here, many people rely on it.

Sakichi graduated from elementary school. He then started working to help his father when trading. New Japanese government under Emperor Meiji. This period is considered the beginning of modern Japan. Amid this social turmoil, the village where Sakichi lived was hit by poverty.

From the age of 14 or 15, Sakichi Toyoda then thought of ways in which he could be helpful to the people in his village. When there is no woodworking activity, Sakichi diligently reads newspapers and magazines. He invited local youth to come together to create an independent study group.

Sakichi was 18, and Sakichi Toyoda learned that the new Monopoly on Patents Act was in effect. He then studied the law and had an idea. At that moment, Toyoda decided to take advantage of the government’s policy and devote his best efforts to making an invention or something new.

Using the trial and error method, Sakichi Toyoda began experimenting with various energy sources but was unsuccessful. He was attracted to the handlooms used by local farming families. Sakichi thought that if he could find a way to increase the efficiency of the handloom, it would help many people.

He then started working in a warehouse. He made and dismantled several looms. But some people started to think it was strange. In 1890, Sakichi went to Ueno in Tokyo to visit the Machinery Exhibition. Many new machines from Japanese and overseas manufacturers were on display. Stay up-to-date with Deltsapure! Provide accurate and updated news for readers.

Inventing the Wood Loom Machine

Sakichi Toyoda was very impressed. Almost every day, he visits exhibitions. He was determined to understand how the machine worked. In 1890, Sakichi’s first discovery. His invention was the Toyoda wooden handloom.

Sakichi Toyoda then received his first patent for the loom in 1891 at the age of 24. Unlike previous looms, Toyoda’s wooden hand loom only requires one hand to operate.

The machine also removes unevenness in woven fabric, thereby improving quality. This increases work efficiency by 40 to 50 percent. However, the loom was still driven manually. And it still needs to be improved in terms of speed and efficiency. So Sakichi focused on how to make the loom run by electricity.

In 1892, Sakichi Toyoda opened a small cloth factory in Tokyo’s Taito Ward. Sakichi Toyoda used several wooden handlooms in that factory, which were his inventions. The fabric produced by the Sakichi factory is then distributed to wholesalers and has a good reputation.

Sakichi manages the factory operations while continuing his discovery efforts. Unfortunately, the factory did not run well and had to be closed after one year. Sakichi then returned to his hometown. He then lived with his uncle in Toyohashi in Aichi Prefecture.

Toyoda Winding Machine

There, Sakichi Toyoda continued his efforts to develop the power loom. Sakichi Toyoda then invented a very efficient winding machine in 1894. This was a very rapid development. To promote the production and sales of his new machine, Sakichi immediately founded Ito Shoten Co. in Nagoya.

Inventing the Electric Loom

This company later became Toyoda Shoten Co. and later changed to Toyoda Shokai Co. After sales of winding machines went according to plan, Sakichi turned his attention to creating a power loom. It didn’t take him long.

In 1896, Toyoda’s power loom became Japan’s first power loom made of refined steel and wood. The machine was run using steam power. The machine is also equipped with an auto-stop mechanism. The machine’s price is relatively cheap and dramatically increases the productivity and quality of weaving.

Founded Toyota Motor Corporation

The automatic weaving machine patent was sold to Platt Brothers & Co, Ltd. in England and the United Kingdom. The proceeds from the sale of this patent are used as capital for the development of the automotive division. On October 30, 1930, Sakichi Toyoda died.

The Toyota company was then handed over to his son, Kiichiro Toyoda. Starting in 1933, Toyoda decided to build an automotive division. This division was then largely controlled by his son, Kiichiro Toyoda. Just like his father, Kiichiro Toyoda continuously produced leading innovations in his time.

Toyota Motor Corporation was founded in September 1933 as the automobile division of the Toyota Automatic Weaving Factory. The company’s automobile division was spun off on August 27, 1937, to create the current Toyota Motor Corporation. Starting from the textile industry, Toyota established itself as one of the leading automotive manufacturers worldwide.

This brand, which produces 1 car every 6 seconds, uses the name Toyota because it is more pleasant than the name of its founder’s family, Toyoda. These are some of the exciting milestones in Toyota’s journey. Toyota is the third largest car manufacturer in the world in unit sales and net sales. This largest manufacturer in Japan produces 5.5 million cars worldwide. If calculated, this figure is equivalent to producing 1 car in 6 seconds.

Toyota name

Compared to other automotive industries that use the founder’s name as a trademark, such as Honda, founded by Soichiro Honda, Daimler-Benz (Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz), Ford (Henry Ford), the Toyoda name is not used as a brand. Because it started from simple thoughts and vision at that time, the mention of Toyoda was not pleasing to the ear and was not well known, so it was changed to Toyota.

The Type A engine was completed in 1934. A year later, this engine was implanted into the prototype of their passenger car, the A1. Toyoda’s automotive division also produces the G1 model truck.

In 1936, they launched their first passenger car, the Toyoda AA (at that time, they were still using the name Toyoda). This model was developed from the A1 prototype and is equipped with an A body and engine. This vehicle was expected to be a people’s car from the start. A product concept that Toyota continues to adhere to today.

Four years of waiting was enough to give birth to their own automotive company and break away from their textile industry. Then, in 1937, they inaugurated the automotive division and used the name Toyota, not Toyoda, like the name of the textile industry. Toyota’s name in Japanese is represented in 8 characters, and eight is a lucky number for Japanese society.

Another reason that is considered reasonable is that the automotive industry is a lifestyle business, and even the mention of a name (and what it sounds like) is an essential aspect. Because the Toyoda name was considered too rigid in a dynamic business, it was changed to Toyota, which was considered better. No doubt, 1937 was a significant era for the birth of Toyota Motor Co., Ltd., the forerunner of today’s giant Toyota Motor Corp (TMC).

The World’s Largest Automotive Manufacturer

Kiichiro Toyoda’s spirit of innovation never dimmed. Toyota then developed into a producer of challenging vehicles. In the 1940s, Toyota was busy developing capital, including putting the company on the stock exchange floor in Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya. After World War II ended, the 1950s proved Toyota as a producer of challenging multi-purpose vehicles.

Toyota then developed the Land Cruiser prototype, which came out in 1950. A year later, it officially launched the initial Land Cruiser BJ model. Not long ago, the Toyota Land Cruiser began to compete with the dominance of the Jeep Willys.

Even with later models, the Toyota Land Cruiser could be accepted in a market that was difficult to penetrate, namely North America. Through this model, Toyota entered markets in various parts of the world, including Indonesia, where it is known as the Toyota Hardtop Land Cruiser FJ40/45.

In Africa, these Toyota Land Cruiser models are used as Technical alias armed jeeps equipped with light, heavy machine guns or recoilless bazookas and deployed throughout armed conflicts with solid performance.

Toyota is not only known for the Toyota Land Cruiser. They also developed a model that became the world’s favorite, the small sedan. With the Corolla, which debuted in 1966, this early generation small sedan used rear drive, changing the order of the popular sedans at that time towards small sedans that were compact, economical, and compact.

Entering 1975, the Corolla entered its third generation and sold more than 5 million units. This amazing thing is still going strong today. This Corolla car engine was used in Indonesia for a multi-purpose family commercial vehicle, the early generation Toyota Kijang, known as the Kijang Buaya.

In the 1990s, Toyota increasingly proved that Japanese cars could compete with European and American cars. Toyota has become a car manufacturer with production facilities in many countries, from America to Asia, such as Indonesia. The Toyota company continues to innovate and develop the best automotive products in the spirit of its founder, Sakichi Toyoda.

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