History
Jujiro Matsuda, founder of what is known is Mazda today, invented the Matsuda-type pump in 1906 at the tender age of 14 while working as a blacksmith. He took over the foundry and changed its name to Matsuda Pump Partnership. After being forced out of his company he created Matsuda Works, an armament manufacturing company. The company’s fortune was realized with the creation and production of the Type 99 rifle used by the Japanese military. Matsuda Works also became armament supplier to the Tsar of Russia and his wealth soon began to grow.
Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd was founded in Hiroshima, Japan in 1920. The company manufactured artificial cork. Jujiro Matsuda was asked to become president of the struggling company in 1921 when it went into receivership. Matsuda turned the focus of the company to the production of tools at the end of World War 1, and later into automobiles.
Major Events
Jujiro Matsuda was the son of a fisherman but had the intelligence of an engineer. He invented a motorised tricycle in 1931 and changed the name of Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd. to Toyo Kogyo Co., Ltd. His interest in motors propelled the company forward but when the headquarters was heavily damaged in 1945 he offered its use to the Hiroshima Bureau of Japan Broadcasting Corporation, (NHK). Toyo Kogyo revitalised the damaged economy in Hiroshima after World War 2. The Toyo Kogyo Co. began exporting the Matsuda 3-wheeled truck to India in 1949. An assembly plant was opened in South Korea in ’62 and production numbers reached 1 million units a year later. Another assembly plant was also built in South Africa in 1963.
Mazda’s first prototype Wankel engine was a single-rotor engine was produced in the early ‘60s although the original Wankel engine was invented by Felix Wankel in 1928 and patented a year later. Wankel was briefly made the leader of the Hitler Youth in Baden in 1931 by Robert Heinrich Wagner. While Wankel went on to create seals and rotary valves for BMW and Daimler-Benz as well as some of the most successful motor engines ever conceived, Wagner became known as the Butcher of Alsace and was convicted as a war criminal after World War 2. His sentence was carried out in front of a firing squad.
In 1979 Ford Motor Company controlled 25% of Toyo Kogyo’s stock. By 1996 Ford owned 33.3% of the company. Both Mazda and Ford developed the 1991 Ford Explorer. Ford’s version was an instant winner and was so for a decade whereas the 2-door Mazda Navajo Ute failed to grab consumers’ attention. The company’s name was changed once again in 1984, to the Mazda Motor Corporation. The name ‘Mazda’ is taken from the name ‘Ahura Mazd?’, the Zoroastrian god of wisdom, intelligence and harmony.
Mazda and NSU Motorenwerke signed a contract in 1961 to develop the Wankel engine. NSU was the first to produce a Wankel automobile (the NSU Spider) to the consumer market in 1964. Mazda developed a 2 and a 4 rotor Wankel engine that were proudly displayed at the Tokyo Motor Show later that year. Volkswagen Group acquired NSU in 1969 and its name was changed to Audi AG. In 1979 it teamed with Ford, and produced loads of vehicles including a top year of 1.3 million in 2007.
Going Forward
Over the years Mazda rebranded itself using a wide variety of symbols and names including the Autozam, Uenos, and Ifini, and in 1997 went from the type-font Mazda, to the winged M-symbol of today, which symbolises the spreading of wings for the future. Other areas of expansion include engineering of an all-electric hybrid car, a recycled Bio-Car, which contains up to 30% of recycled materials from plastic, milk cartons, and even animals byproducts.
They have also focused on the innovative use of technologies to enhance the performance and sensory capabilities of some of their new models with a technology called SkyActiv. It can be found in the 2014 Mazda 3. So hold onto your hats and get ready to “Zoom-Zoom!”
