100 Years of Mazda

AS JAPAN’S MOST INNOVATIVE AND TENACIOUS CAR MAKER NOTCHES UP A CENTURY, WE LOOK BACK AT THE KEY MOMENTS AND CARS THAT SHAPED THE BRAND

- ASH WESTERMAN

JUJIRO MATSUDA’S lightbulb moment, it must be acknowledged, took a while to arrive.

The man who apprenticed as a foundry steel worker from age 14, and who would go on to be the founder of the Mazda car company, was 31 when his nimble mind conjured a pump specifically designed for chemicals. The ‘Matsuda-type pump’ would be the basis for his first company.

Understanding the backstory of Mazda’s founder is pivotal to understanding the brand. It’s an unconventional path scattered with hallmarks and personality traits that would define the ‘dare to be different’ ethos which continues to permeate the company, even a century from its beginning.

Matsuda would later go on to establish a weapons manufacturing business, cracking the big time with a deal to supply Japanese, and later Russian military forces.

He was a wealthy self-made man of 46 when he took over the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co Ltd business, but running this manufacturing operation of artificial cork would prove a testing and pivotal period, as the market for the product collapsed and his factory later burned to the ground. From its ashes rose a machine-tool manufacturing operation, and it was eventually via this business he would spot the demand for motorised delivery and commercial vehicles. Matsuda’s offering for this burgeoning segment was a three-wheeled motorcycle configured for rear-mounted cargo, the Mazda-Go Type DA. Powered by an air-cooled single and featuring a then-novel reverse gear, the Mazda-Go nailed the brief for an affordable, nimble and versatile delivery ‘trike’ and quickly found export success.