Jujiro Matsuda

Infobox Person
name = Jujiro Matsuda


caption =
birth_date = August 8, 1875
birth_place = Hiroshima, Japan
death_date = March 27, 1952
death_place = Hiroshima, Japan
occupation = Founder, Mazda Motor Corporation
spouse =

Nihongo|Jujiro Matsuda|松田重次郎|Matsuda Jūjirō (August 8, 1875 - March 9, 1952) was a Japanese industrialist and businessman who founded automaker Mazda Motor Corporation.

Early life

The son of a fisherman, Jujiro Matsuda was born in Hiroshima. He was apprenticed to a blacksmith in Osaka at the age of fourteen and invented the "Matsuda-type pump" in 1906. Later, he took over management of the foundry at which he apprenticed and changed the name of the organization to "Matsuda Pump Partnership." He was forced out of his company, but started an armament manufacturer soon after - the eponymously named Matsuda Works. Matsuda would see his fledging company's fortunes improve when it was commissioned as a supplier to the Tsar of Russiacite web|url=http://www.drivingtoday.com/wbz4/greatest_cars/mazda_mx5_miata/index.html|title=Mazda MX-5 by Jack Nerad for Driving Today|accessdate=2007-07-25|publisher= [http://www.drivingtoday.com Driving Today] ] as well as manufacturing the Type 99 rifle for the Japanese military.

Toyo Kogyo and Mazda

By 1921, Jujiro Matsuda was a wealthy man thanks to his previous business ventures. He moved back to Hiroshima when he was asked to take over management of floundering artificial cork manufacturer Nihongo|Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd.|東洋コルク工業株式会社|Tōyō Koruku Kōgyō Kabushiki Gaisha, who was placed into receivership by its creditors when the market for artificial cork dried up following the end of World War I. cite web|url=http://www.drivingtoday.com/wbz4/greatest_cars/mazda_mx5_miata/index.html|title=Mazda MX-5 by Jack Nerad for Driving Today|accessdate=2007-07-25|publisher= [http://www.drivingtoday.com Driving Today] ] The unprofitable cork business was stopped, and Matsuda focused on tool manufacturing. 1931 oversaw the introduction of the "Mazdago" motorized tricycle, manufactured in what is now Fuchū city and the company, now know as Nihongo|Toyo Kogyo Co., Ltd.|東洋工業株式会社|Tōyō Kōgyō Kabushiki Gaisha, would set its focus on motor vehicle manufacturing.

The Toyo Kogyo headquarters saw heavy damage on August 6, 1945 upon the bombing of Hiroshima. The Fuchū city plant, 5.3 kilometers from the site of the explosion was left relatively unscathed and Matsuda offered its use for the Hiroshima bureau of NHK.

Matsuda was not accused of being nor was he charged as a war conspirator, and a revitalized Toyo Kogyo was the main force behind repairing the damaged economy of Hiroshima following World War II. In 1950, Toyo Kogyo provided startup for a baseball team, the Hiroshima Carp.

His adopted son-in-law, Tsuneji Matsuda succeeded him as president of Toyo Kogyo, and oversaw the expansion of its automobile division until 1979, when Ford Motor Company took a 25% equity stake in Toyo Kogyo.

The alliance with Ford led to the divesture of shares from the Matsuda family and the change of Toyo Kogyo into Mazda Motor Corporation in 1984. The Matsuda family still owns a controlling interest in the Hiroshima Toyo Carp.

Matsuda died on March 9, 1952. For his contributions to the province of Hiroshima, a bronze statue of Jujiro Matsuda was created in 1965 by fellow Hiroshima native, renowned sculptor Katsuzou Entsuba and was erected at the Minami-ku park.

References