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DO you
know that the body of the first ever Toyota vehicle was
made of wood?
Did
anybody tell you that the founder of Toyota never
thought of becoming a carmaker?
And,
yes, who among you ever heard of the name Toyoda?
You will
find the answers in
Nagoya City,
Japan,
in a place called Toyota Techno Museum.
Favorite compact of all
time
The 1967 Corolla
Okay,
let’s go to
Nagoya.
Nagoya
is in the heart of Central Japan and is now one of
Japan’s key industrial zones.
Found in
Aichi,
Nagoya is the region’s economic and cultural hub and forms the core
of industry and tourism of the
Aichi
Prefecture.
But more
than anything else,
Nagoya
is well-known for car manufacturing and ceramics
industries. The city is beside
Toyota City,
where the head office of the Toyota Motor Corp. is
located.
If a
visitor doesn’t have time to tour Toyota City, the best
substitute for the trip is the
Toyota Techno Museum,
which is also known as the Commemorative Museum of
Industry and Technology.
Wondrous sight
The Model G
automatic loom invented in 1924 by Sakichi Toyoda
(father of Kiichiro, founder of Toyota Motor Corp.) is
the first exhibit one will see upon entering the Toyota
Techno Museum.
Luckily,
this writer was with 18 other Filipino motoring
journalists invited by Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) to
the just-ended Tokyo Motor Show. And all 19 of us could
only happily blurt out ahs and ohs once we were herded
to the Toyota Techno Museum by TMP first vice president
Danny “Sir John” Isla and TMP public relations exec
Elijah Sue Marcial.
Okay,
before we proceed, what’s the relation of Toyoda again
to the word Toyota?
Toyoda
is the founder of
Toyota.
How Toyoda became known as Toyota in the present-day
motoring business was a result of a writing contest put
up by Toyoda among high school students in 1937 to
suggest an appropriate name for a Japanese-made car.
The word “Toyota” came out the winner.
But
oddly enough, Sakichi Toyoda, born in 1867, and the
patriarch of the Toyoda clan, was never into the car
business; he was in the textile industry. In 1924, he
invented the Toyoda Model G Automatic Loom. In 1929,
Toyoda sold the automatic-loom patent to a British
company.
Form and function
AA Sedan
prototype
It was
not Sakichi Toyoda who founded the Toyota Motor Corp.
It was his son, Kiichiro.
In 1930,
Kiichiro Toyoda started research into a small
gasoline-powered engine. In 1933, the Automobile
Department was established at the Toyoda Automatic Loom
Works, Ltd.
Three
years later, in 1936, the first
Toyota
automobile, the AA Sedan, was completed. The prototype
of the AA Sedan occupies the most prominent spot at the
Toyota Techno Museum, drawing thousands weekly of
yen-paying tourists—both of the local and foreign
variety. (Of course, by way of paying homage to the man
who started it all, the elder Toyoda’s loom technology
is the first highlight of every tour at the Toyota
Techno Museum.)
In 1937
the Toyota Motor Co. Ltd. was established, coinciding
with the launch of the AA Sedan. In the recent Tokyo
Motor Show, this writer was witness to the accent on the
70th year of the launch of the first ever
Toyota vehicle—the AA Sedan.
Knock on wood
A scene depicting
how the first Toyota sedan, the AA, was made using a
wooden frame.
At the
Toyota Techno Museum, you are practically lost in the
magic of time. You experience the enchanted luxury of
being brought back to the glorious past of the Toyota
empire—how the first Toyota car was conceived, built and
rolled out of the assembly line.
“This is
one tour that every car enthusiast must never miss when
in Nagoya,” said my editor here, Popong “Popsee”
Andolong.
At the
Toyota Techno Museum, the first Toyota shop where the
first Toyota vehicle (AA Sedan) was built, had been
recreated and restored to its original structure—brick
by brick, tile by tile. It’s a beauty of lasting
splendor.
The
two-story museum will thrill you with the many original
make of the all-time Toyota bestseller, the Corolla, and
the Toyota all-time luxury car, the Corona, on display
all-year-round. The Celica and Toyopet also occupy
center stage.
The
first Corolla unleashed in 1967 is there in its shining
glory.
Engines
of different make, including that of Toyota’s Formula
One, are all there—even those used in army trucks used
in World War II.
So
thoroughly complete is the
Toyota
technology from its early beginnings to the present that
the Toyota Techno Museum is a veritable feast to the
eye. Like a first kiss, my experience there will
forever be etched in the slum book of my mind. |
