Brief history of Toyota Motor Co. and museum

Hi TW,

I had the opportunity of taking a trip to Japan, great noodles, ancient temples, kind people but there were was one place in particular I wanted to visit: the first and original Toyota factory in Japan (now called the Kaikan museum).


This is the factory where it all began and is now a dedicated museum to the history of Toyota Motor Company as well as the Toyoda Automatic Loom Works. I'm back to share with you some pictures that I personally took and a little piece of history which is deeply embedded here in TW that few of us realize.
Let's begin!

Toyota Motor Co. started as a textiles company in 1911 by Sakichi Toyoda (that's right, TO-YO-DA) who established the Toyoda automatic weaving mill in Sako, Nagoya. His factory performed research and development of automatic looms for the weaving of textiles.



In the 1920's, Sakichi contributed to many developments of the automatic loom machines leading to the development of the Type G automatic loom machine in 1924 which came to be regarded as the highest performing automatic loom machine at that time. Sakichi established Toyota Automatic loom works for the mass production of his loom machines becoming the nucleus for the growth of a future company which his son, Kiichiro Toyoda will develop.

Kiichiro was raised in an industrial environment providing him access for study, research and development in the automatic loom machines, however he developed a keen interest in automobiles. In a small room on a corner of his father's loom factory he began tinkering with a Smith Flyer vehicle, a small, simple two seat vehicle with a wooden frame. He was able to provide a kit that would attach a Smith Flyer wheel and motor onto an ordinary bicycle.



His next project was an ambitions one, the automobile. So how do you figure out how an automobile works in 1920's?
Simple!
You start by taking apart and studying an American Chevrolet car.
In a corner of of the Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, preparations began to build prototype vehicles while recruiting people with relevant experience from outside the company.



The production of Toyota's automobiles started in 1933 as a division of Toyoda Automatic Loom Works and by 1935 they had finally achieved their first production car, the A1 (or AA in Japan).










Personal note:
This vehicle is gorgeous!
It's a mechanical masterpiece, the first step forward for the automotive industry in Japan.

After the completion of the Model AA, Kiichiro turned it's attention to building a truck vehicle because it was more likely to be profitable in the short term, thus the first ever Toyota truck was born: the G1.





Alright so what's the deal with the name?
What's with TOYODA?
Isn't it TOYOTA?

In September 1936 the company ran a public competition to design a new logo for their line of vehicles, of 27,000 entries the end result was a combination of three Japanese letters spelling the word TOYOTA.

I personally happen to study basic Japanese language so I will attempt to uncover this mystery. Unlike our English alphabet which consists of 26 letters, Japanese writing has two forms of alphabets called Hiragana and Katakana. There's a third form of writing called Kanji but let's focus on Katakana for now

The Japanese letter for "TO" is written as "ト"
The Japanese letter for "YO" is written as "ヨ"
The Japanese letter for "DA" is written as "ダ"

The word TOYODA would've been seen as トヨダ
Notice the two lines at the top of ダ.

The decision to change the name to TOYOTA was because:

*In Japanese writing it takes eight brush strokes (a lucky number, Japanese culture).
*It was visually simpler.
*It was simpler to pronounce.

Thus the name "Toyota" (トヨタ) with the two lines removed from ダ was established in August 1937 as the Toyota Motor Company. Personally after reading about the new logo for Toyota it inspired me to make the TEQ emblem after coming back from Japan.



The second truck in production, the Model GA was the first vehicle sold under the new name of Toyota.

Fun fact: from September 1947 small size vehicles were sold under the name "Toyopet" (トヨペット) and was given the nick name after the SA model for it's small size as a result of another naming contest.


From this group of small size vehicles came other models including the Toyopet Corona, however after the introduction of these vehicles into American sales the name was drooped due to associations with toys and pets. From these smaller size vehicles came our famous Corolla, Camry, Celica and others.





The rest of the museum offers a good amount of information about the fabrication of these vehicles, testing, forging etc. There were lots of Japanese and foreign college students visiting the museum





Fun fact: In my early years of manufacturing I used to operate a 2-story high CNC machine labeled TOYODA. I'm not sure if the brand is a direct product of the Toyota motor company but I do know it started in 1941 originally made to facilitate the production lines of major automotive companies including Toyota Motor Co.







Toyota Motor Co. has prospered and is now one of the finest example of lean manufacturing over the world. They also continue to make a variety of products such as this advanced loom machine shown below that can dye each thread a different color to produce a photo on the fabric.



Our tour ended with a special duet playing instruments live.

I hope you enjoy.

-Andres

Museum locations:
Toyota Kaikan Museum

 

That was awesome. Thank you for sharing with us!

 

They should open another factory. I've had nothing but the best experiences with Toyotas built in Japan.

 

You are welcome, I'm glad you like it.

 

Agreed.

I also visited a Toyota automobile museum and the Toyota factory line.
Unfortunately no pictures allowed in the factory line but it is unbelievably organized.
It was said that they have major plans on renovating the production plant that we visited.

 

Thanks Andres!

 

You're welcome.

In time I'll make another thread for the Toyota Automobile Museum, wicked cool.

 

Hands down the best post I have ever seen on here and most likely ever will! I've been to Yokohama,Japan and I absolutely fell in love with the culture as well as the people. The respect they have for their environment as well as each other we as Americans could learn a thing or two. I came back as a result of their culture a better person. Thank you for posting this!

 

Thanks Andres!
Nice touch on Toyota history. Makes me want to get a TE7 shirt

 

Dude it's like I went on a very informative field trip. I was there in spirit.

 

I hear yah bud, I sure did learn a lot from the locals.
Their presentation of respect, level of attention to detail, their respect for people and nature, the cleanliness in their streets and their homes and is striking.

 

Andres

Very nice, thanks for sharing.

 

Should check out Tokyo mega web next time too.

 

You are welcome = ]

 

I was working on a ship in Alaska and we picked up a contract in Yokohama for a week,We pulled into port and I walked more than I ever have. Never seen one cigarette butt or anything else for that matter on the street. Watched a guy at 12:00 at night wait for the "walk" sign when there were no cars to be seen. There was one experience that will stick with me for the rest of my life... Two couples closing up their store. Laughing and enjoying each others company and the moment took a very serious turn. The laughing stopped. The woman stood across from one another as did the men. The woman waited for the men first to bow. Inwhich they did slow and with much respect, after the men so did the women. My heart about hit the ground. I love my country and all that we stand/stood for but we've lost so much of that spirit we had post WWII. After everything that happened with Japan, honor is something that is so deeply embedded in them as a people you can't help but have a deep and profound respect for them once one has experienced it

 

I tried looking for it but didn't have enough time to see it and catch the next train.
I was very close to it, so on my way back Gundam shows up and gives me a lift.

The Gundam front is only a 10 minute walk from Toyota mega web.
You mess with me, you mess with Gundam!

 

Thanks for that. Amazing corporate history.

 

Totally agree.
Everywhere I went people greeted me with a bow, thus I bowed back.
While riding the metro, train or bus the people are as silent as a library.
Business men hand out their business card holding it with two hands and bow, the card is seen as a direct reflection of themselves.

I can understand why American looked at Japanese people differently before WWII, they seem to us no different than N. Korea these days.
The people in Japan are no longer the people they were during the war, they're now a thriving country pushing technology further.

Every country I visit has it's highlights:

Ireland has good beer, the greatest pubs
Italy has good wines, great food
Scotland has majestic green fields, lots of sheep

Every country has good things in them, but for Japan is the people.
Enough ramble, words can't describe how I feel about these people but you sir know what I'm talking about.

 

You're welcome.

Lots was left out, I didn't want to turn this into a Toyota chapter encyclopedia.

 

Haha! Yep! I've stayed in odaiba. The hotel next to the little Statue of Liberty. Lots of cool little shopping malls.