was a Japanese industrialist and businessman whose company, Toyo Kogyo, led to the founding of the present-day multinational automaker

Mazda Motor Corporation , commonly referred to as simply Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Fuchū, Hiroshima, Japan. In 2015, Mazda produced 1.5 million vehicles for global sales, the majority of which (nearly one mi ...

, in 1984.

Early life

The son of a fisherman, Matsuda was born in Hiroshima in 1875. He was apprenticed to a blacksmith in

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...

at the age of 14 and invented the "Matsuda-type pump" in 1906. He later took over management of the foundry at which he apprenticed and changed the name of the organization to "Matsuda Pump Partnership"; he was eventually forced out of the company, but launched an arms manufacturing company soon after: the eponymously-named Matsuda Works. Matsuda would see his fledgling company's fortunes improve when it was commissioned as a supplier to the

Tsar of Russia This is a list of all reigning monarchs in the history of Russia. It includes the princes of medieval Rus′ state (both centralised, known as Kievan Rus′ and feudal, when the political center moved northeast to Vladimir and finally to Mos ...

and as the manufacturer of the

Type 99 rifle The was a bolt-action rifle of the Arisaka design used by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. History During the Second Sino-Japanese War in the 1930s, the Japanese soon found that the 7.7mm cartridge being fired by their Type 92 ...

for the

Imperial Japanese Armed Forces The Imperial Japanese Armed Forces (IJAF) were the combined military forces of the Japanese Empire. Formed during the Meiji Restoration in 1868,"One can date the 'restoration' of imperial rule from the edict of 3 January 1868." p. 334. they ...

Toyo Kogyo and Mazda Motor Corporation

By 1921, Matsuda had accumulated significant wealth owing to his previous business ventures. He moved back to Hiroshima after he was asked to take over management of floundering artificial cork manufacturer , which was placed into receivership by its creditors when the market for artificial cork dried up following the end of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The unprofitable cork business ceased, and Matsuda focused on tool manufacturing. 1931 oversaw the introduction of the "

Mazda-Go The Mazda-Go (Japanese: マツダ号) is a three-wheeled open "truck" that was first produced in 1931 and resembled a motorcycle with an open wagon or truck bed. It entered the market on 3 October 1931. It was the first vehicle manufactured by M ...

" motorized tricycle, manufactured in what is now the city of Fuchū and the company, now known as , would concentrate on motor vehicle manufacturing.

World War II and aftermath

In August 1945, the Toyo Kogyo headquarters in Hiroshima sustained heavy damage in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which were carried out by the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

against

Imperial Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent forma ...

in the closing stages of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. The Fuchū plant, located over from the epicentre of the

nuclear explosion A nuclear explosion is an explosion that occurs as a result of the rapid release of energy from a high-speed nuclear reaction. The driving reaction may be nuclear fission or nuclear fusion or a multi-stage cascading combination of the two, tho ...

, was left relatively unscathed; Matsuda offered its usage for the Hiroshima bureau of the

Japan Broadcasting Corporation , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestri ...

. During the

Allied occupation of Japan Japan was occupied and administered by the victorious Allies of World War II from the 1945 surrender of the Empire of Japan at the end of the war until the Treaty of San Francisco took effect in 1952. The occupation, led by the United States w ...

, Matsuda was not accused nor formally charged of being a war conspirator, and a revitalized Toyo Kogyo was the main driving force behind repairing the damaged economy of Hiroshima in the aftermath of World War II. In 1950, Toyo Kogyo provided the start-up for a baseball team, the

Hiroshima Carp The is a professional baseball team based in Hiroshima, Japan. They compete in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. The team is primarily owned by the Matsuda family, led by , who is a descendant of Mazda founder Jujiro Mats ...

. 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 Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...

took a 25 percent equity stake. The alliance with Ford Motor Company led to the divestiture of shares from the Matsuda family and the change of Toyo Kogyo into

in 1984; the Matsuda family still owns a controlling interest in the Hiroshima Toyo Carp. Matsuda died on 27 March 1952. For his contributions to Hiroshima Prefecture, a bronze statue of him was created in 1965 by

Onomichi is a city located in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan, facing the Inland Sea. The city was founded on April 1, 1898. As of April 30, 2016, the city has an estimated population of 141,811 and a population density of 497.8 persons per km2. The total a ...

-native sculptor Katsuzou Entsuba, and was erected at the Hijiyama Park in Minami-ku.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Matsuda, Jujiro 1875 births 1952 deaths Japanese founders of automobile manufacturers People from Hiroshima Mazda