Unfortunately, the bus service is very limited, so you have to walk or take a taxi to his birthplace Sakichi Toyoda Memorial House. I walked there because I had once worked in Kosai and still remembered how it looked like around the house. But I would recommend taking a taxi. It takes about 30 minutes on foot.
Sakichi Toyoda Memorial House is in a rural area filled in nature. The admission is free. This is the gate.
You can see a bust of Sakichi made by his wife when you step inside.
The first building on the right is the exhibition room where you can learn about the life of Sakichi with pictures and explanation in Japanese, English, and Chinese, as well as with a video of reenactment of his life. I found the video realistic and interesting. Sakichi was born in 1867. His father was a carpenter, and Sakichi started to help his father after finishing four years of elementary education. Besides the work, he read books and magazines and was inspired by Self-Help by Samuel Smiles*, especially by the episode of the English inventor Richard Arkwright. He wanted to do something that would contribute to the world and people. When the Monopoly Patent Act was established in 1885, Sakichi found his mission to become an inventor.
Western Shizuoka Prefecture have been a major production area of textile. Sakichi’s mother used to weave cloth in addition to doing farming. Sakichi stayed in this barn and worked hard day by day to improve the loom so that the burden of work would be reduced. His father expected Sakichi to become a skillful carpenter, so he opposed to his devotion to the loom. Even people in the village thought Sakichi was strange as he worked on a women's work tool.
Inside of the barn looked like this.
In 1890, Sakichi completed his first invention Toyoda Wooden Hand Loom. In the lounge beside the house of his birth, you can experience weaving with this loom by referring to the instructions on the wall.
It allows you to weave cloth only with one hand. The shuttle moves automatically from one side to the other as you pull the reed quickly toward you. I tried for a while. It was difficult than I thought. However, this loom increased the productivity by 40 - 50% compared with a traditional loom and improved the quality of the cloth at the same time.
This is the house where Sakichi and his son Kiichiro were born. It was rebuilt in 1990.
From the front side, you can see Sakichi and his mother. She was the only supporter for Sakichi and wept for joy when he completed his loom.
Sakichi obtained more than 80 patens for invention in his life. The exhibition room exhibits Non-Stop Shuttle Change Toyoda Automatic Loom, Type G in 1924 that had the best performance in the world. Sakichi sold the patent for the loom to an English manufacturer Platt Brothers & Co., Ltd. for one million yen, which became the capital for development of automobiles.
Beside the loom, there was a big kite. I heard that Sakichi had liked to fly a kite. Even now, we have kite festivals in Hamamatsu and some other towns in western Shizuoka Prefecture. It seems that kite flying has been a common passion among people in this area all the time.
*The Japanese translation of Self-Help by Samuel Smiles was published in 1871 and became one of the bestsellers of the Meiji period (1868-1912). When I learned that Sakichi was a big fan of this book, I felt a sense of familiarity because it was my favorite book when I was a university student. I still remember the phrase “Heaven helps those who help themselves” and believe it.
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