Matsui Shikiso Chemical Co., Ltd was founded in 1911 by
Kenji Matsui. Matsui Shikiso Chemical started offering a wide variety of products, mainly inks and pigments targeted principally to the
textile screen printing industry. Focusing as being an exclusive water base ink producer in the textile industry, Matsui's continued success led to establishing a subsidiary in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
to better service their growing international clientele. In 1987, Matsui International developed the first thermochromic paints, thermochromic inks, and thermochromic plastics, broadcast on Japan's national public channel, NHK (Nippon Hosoku Kaisha), introducing
thermochromism
Thermochromism is the property of substances to change color due to a change in temperature. A mood ring is an excellent example of this phenomenon, but thermochromism also has more practical uses, such as baby bottles which change to a differen ...
to the world. In 1989 the subsidiary Matsui International Co., Inc., was founded, and is run by
Masahiko Matsui, the grandson of Kenji Matsui. Soon after the establishment, Matsui entered the heat transfer business, under the trademark, Unimark USA.
Matsui Shikiso manufactured the color dyes for
Hypercolor
Hypercolor was a line of clothing, mainly T-shirts and shorts, that changed color with heat.
They were manufactured by Generra Sportswear Company of Seattle and marketed in the United States as Generra Hypercolor or Generra Hypergrafix and el ...
shirts.
References
External links
Matsui Shikiso Chemical Co., LtdMatsui International Co., Ltd.Unimark USA{{Primary sources, date=October 2007
Chemical companies of Japan