Staff and cars outside the Art Shokai automobile service station in Hamamatsu, Japan, around 1935

Soichiro Honda: The Mechanic Who Built Honda From a Workshop

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Soichiro Honda (1906 to 1991) was a Japanese mechanic and engineer who founded Honda Motor Co. in 1948 and built it into one of the world’s largest motorcycle makers. He started as a 15-year-old apprentice in a Tokyo car repair shop, failed repeatedly at making piston rings, bolted war-surplus engines to bicycles after the war, and went on to launch the Super Cub, win at the Isle of Man TT and enter Formula One.

This is a short, sourced biography. Every date and figure comes from Honda’s own history pages or from the official TT results, linked at the end.

A blacksmith’s son who loved engines

Honda was born on 17 November 1906 in Komyo Village, Shizuoka Prefecture, the eldest son of a blacksmith, Gihei Honda, and a weaver, Mika. His father later opened a bicycle shop and repaired second-hand bicycles. Honda’s own history says he inherited his father’s manual dexterity and his curiosity about machines, and that he never forgot the smell of oil from the first car that came through his village.

The apprentice at Art Shokai

After leaving elementary school in April 1922, at 15, Honda moved to Tokyo to work at Art Shokai, an automobile service station he had read about in a bicycle trade magazine. Apprentices there received board, lodging and a little pocket money rather than wages.

Art Shokai also built racing cars. Honda helped fabricate parts for the “Curtiss” racer, which won the Fifth Japan Automobile Competition on 23 November 1924 with Honda riding along as the mechanic. Honda says the owner, Yuzo Sakakibara, taught him how to repair machines and how to deal with customers.

In April 1928, at 21, Honda opened Art Shokai’s Hamamatsu branch, the only trainee Sakakibara allowed to do so. He earned the nickname “the Edison of Hamamatsu” for inventions such as stronger water pumps for fire engines, bus conversions to carry more passengers, and a lift that meant mechanics no longer had to crawl under a car.

Piston rings and a lot of failure

In 1936 Honda grew bored of repairing other people’s machines and began making piston rings through a new company, Tokai Seiki. The early work failed. Honda enrolled in a part-time metallurgy course to learn why.

Even after he got the rings working, he hit a second problem. Honda’s history says that of fifty piston rings he submitted to Toyota for quality control, only three met the standard. It took nearly two more years of visiting universities and steelmakers before he could supply mass-produced parts to Toyota and Nakajima Aircraft. At its peak the company employed more than 2,000 people.

The war ended that chapter. Tokai Seiki’s plants were damaged by air raids and by an earthquake in January 1945. After Japan’s surrender, Honda sold the company and took a break from work.

Bicycles with engines

In 1946 Honda founded the Honda Technical Research Institute in Hamamatsu. His first product was a bicycle fitted with a small surplus generator engine that had been designed to power army radios. He bought about 500 of the engines. Rather than just bolting them on, he took each engine apart, refined it, reassembled it and test rode it before selling.

The bikes were cheap and popular, and the engines earned the nickname “bata-bata” for the sound of their exhaust. In 1947 the company introduced the Honda A-Type, the first product to carry the Honda name. Honda insisted on die casting for it, even though sand casting would have been cheaper, because he was already planning for mass production.

Honda Motor Co. was founded on 24 September 1948 with starting capital of one million yen. In August 1949 it introduced its first full motorcycle, the Dream D-Type, which Honda designed entirely itself, frame included.

The partnership with Takeo Fujisawa

In August 1949 Honda, then 42, met Takeo Fujisawa, 38. They hit it off immediately and Fujisawa closed his own company to join Honda as managing director. Both men later explained the decision the same way: “He had some things I didn’t have.”

Honda handled technology. Fujisawa handled sales, money and organisation. The D-Type’s sales had stalled, and Honda says only about 20 of Japan’s nearly 300 motorcycle dealers carried its products. Fujisawa sent sales staff around the country to recruit dealers. The next bike, the 146 cc four-stroke Dream E-Type, launched in October 1951. Its monthly production reached 500 units six months after launch and 2,000 units after a year.

The Super Cub

The partners’ biggest hit came in 1958. After visiting Europe in December 1956 and seeing how many people used mopeds and scooters, they set out to make an everyday bike anyone could ride. The result was the Super Cub C100. Honda says cumulative production of the Super Cub series passed 100 million units in October 2017. We cover that story in our Honda Super Cub guide.

Racing: the Isle of Man TT and Formula One

Racing was part of Honda’s engineering culture from the Art Shokai days. On 20 March 1954 Honda publicly declared that the company would enter the Isle of Man TT, in a declaration signed by Soichiro Honda, and drafted by Fujisawa, pledging to enter the race and win it. In 1961 that goal was reached: Mike Hailwood won both the 125 cc Ultra-Lightweight and the 250 cc Lightweight TT races on Hondas, and Honda riders took the first five places in each race, according to the official TT results.

Honda also took on Formula One in 1964, almost as soon as it had entered the car business. Its first F1 win came on 24 October 1965 at the Mexican Grand Prix, when Richie Ginther led every lap in the Honda RA272, in only Honda’s 11th race.

Retirement and death

In September 1973 Soichiro Honda stepped down as president, and Fujisawa stepped down the same year. Kiyoshi Kawashima, who had joined Honda in 1947, became the second president. Soichiro Honda died on 5 August 1991, aged 84.

What the story teaches new riders

  • Learn the machine. Honda’s skill came from taking things apart and putting them back together. Learning basic maintenance makes you a better rider.
  • Expect failures. Honda’s early piston rings mostly failed, and he went back to school to find out why.
  • Design for ordinary people. The Super Cub’s step-through frame and automatic clutch came from asking what customers wanted, not from chasing speed.

Frequently asked questions

When was Honda founded?

Honda Motor Co., Ltd. was founded on 24 September 1948 in Hamamatsu, Japan, with starting capital of one million yen. Its precursor, the Honda Technical Research Institute, started in 1946.

Who founded Honda?

Soichiro Honda founded the company, and Takeo Fujisawa joined in 1949 to run sales and finance. They are usually described as the company’s two founders.

How did Honda start?

Honda began by fitting surplus generator engines to bicycles in 1946, then built its own engine, the A-Type, in 1947, and its first motorcycle, the Dream D-Type, in 1949.

Did Toyota reject Honda’s piston rings?

Honda’s history says that when he submitted fifty piston rings to Toyota for quality control, only three met the required standard. He then spent nearly two years studying manufacturing techniques before he could supply Toyota.

How old was Soichiro Honda when he died?

He was 84. He was born on 17 November 1906 and died on 5 August 1991.

Sources

Featured photo: Art Shokai Hamamatsu branch, about 1935, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

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