Mazda Introduction and History

- Matsuda was born August 6, 1875, 12th son of a fisherman in the Hiroshima Prefecture. His father died when he was three years old. At the age of 13 he got a job in a blacksmith shop in Osaka. At the age of 20, in 1894 he started his own shop and employed 50 workers, but a recession drove him out of business. He tried again eleven years later in a converted cow shed. His eldest son, Tsuneji (1897?-1971), pumped air for the furnace.

- Jujiro Matsuda invented and patented a pump. It sold well, so he formed the Matsuda Pump Partnership. He was edged out a few years later when the company was taken over.

- In 1912 Jujiro formed Matsuda Works. In one year it employed 4000 workers to produce four million artillery fuses for the Russian Czar's government. Then it became Japan Armament Manufacturing Company. Later he left to create a new Matsuda Works in Hiroshima. Nihon Steel Manufacuring Co. took this over.

- A group of investors including Matsuda took over a failing Abemaki tree cork company in January 1920, naming it Toyo Cork Kogyo Company Limited. Toyo means Orient and Kogyo means industry. Jujiro became president the next year.

- In September 1927, Matsuda reformed the company as Toyo Kogyo Kaisha (Company) Limited to grow out of cork and into industrial production. A test run of 30 motorcycles were manufactured in 1930 or earlier, since one of them won a race that year.

- Ahura Mazda is the Zoroastran lord of light, creator of the universe. The name is also very close to Matsuda. (You may see light bulbs with the same brand name, but they have nothing to do with the auto maker.) Toyo Kogyo successfully produced these 500cc three wheelers with differential transmissions beginning in 1931. They were exported to China, beginning in 1932. A small passenger sedan protoype was made in 1940, but this had to be abandoned due to the Second World War.

- The atom bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945, but the company was fortunate that less than half of the plant was destroyed. In 1950 Toyo Kogyo produced the Type CT three-wheeler with 1157 cc V twin (32 bhp). This was very successful. Additionally there were the CA four wheel trucks, and the CF compact four wheel fire engines. In May 1960 the R360 air cooled coupe was introduced with a 356 cc two cylinder rear mounted engine. In 1962 there was the 358 cc four cylinder Carol sedan. 1963 saw the model 800 and Familia four with front engines and rear drive.

- Jujiro's son Tenuji became President of the Company in 1951. Jujiro passed away in March 1952. Tsuneji succumbed to a lung inflammation in 1971. His son Kohei succeeded him until he stepped down in 1977.

- In 1973, Mazda sold 104,960 cars in the US, twice the previous year's total. More than 92 percent had rotary engines. The next year, after the gas crisis had made its impact felt, Mazda sold only 61,192 cars in the US.

- In 1984 the company name was changed to Mazda Motor Corporation. Mazda has assembly plants in 21 countries and exports to 120 countries.

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