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This is the closest
existing model of the first automobile to arrive in Japan from overseas.
An example of the actual automobile was acquired on loan from Deutsches
Museum in 1998 and put on special display, and this scale model
is based on it. |
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Locomobile bought the rights
for the steam engine car from the Stanley Company two years after it was first
developed in 1897 and immediately went into production. The production of the
first Locomobile model was probably in the same year that an American in Yokohama,
Thompson, imported one through his trading company. It resembled the 1887 Stanley
Runabout. With its sandwiched leaf spring-style suspension, a steel chassis,
and wooden body. With more than 300 connecting pipes making up its boiler, its
two-cylinder engine was driven by steam pressure. |
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This 10-passenger steam car
was the first automobile to be domestically produced. At the Fifth Domestic
Industrial Exposition, held in Osaka in 1903, a man of wealth from Okayama was
inspired by the display of American automobiles. He then had Torao Yamaba build
this car. |
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This automobile was commissioned
by Imperial Prince Takehito Arisugawa, the
"Imperial Prince of Automobiles," who ordered Shinataro Yoshida and Komanosuke
Uchiyama to build it. It was the first domestic, gasoline-powered automobile built
in Japan. About ten were constructed, and because people at the time thought it
made a rattling noise when it ran, they nicknamed it the "Takuri," which is a
shortened form of the Japanese onomatopoeia for "rattle. |
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This was the first truck Tokyo
Gas and Electric (T.G.E.) completed and was the first model to serve as an official
military truck. In 1931, the company named the truck "Chiyoda," and continued
to produce military trucks until 1937. |
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Based on the Ford Model TT, this
11-passenger bus ran the streets of Tokyo following the Great Kanto Earthquake.
This is the car whose proliferation brought the automobile to the forefront
of the people's minds, instead of city trams or trains. Incidentally, the nickname
"Entaro" was given by the local people after a popular rakugoka, or a traditional
Japanese comic storyteller. |
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Junya Toyokawa, founder of
Hakuyosha, after first manufacturing industrial tools and machinery, set his
sights on a car manufacturing appropriate to Japanese conditions. Approximately
300 units of the Otomo were produced as a result. Later, the Otomo was the first
domestic car to be exported when they were shipped to Shanghai. |
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When Ford first built its assembly
factory in Yokohama in 1925, it started making Model T's. The Model A is a modification,
built to reflect American design changes. Some Model As are used as taxis(takushii
in Japan),which were nicknamed the "Entaku." |
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When GM first built its assembly
factory in Osaka in 1927, they built
Chevrolets. As you can see on this display, both these automobiles were built
with right-side steering wheels. This marks them as Japanese productions, and
these pieces are important, living witnesses to history. |
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This was Toyota's first truck, a pioneering
feat accomplished by Toyota Motor Corporation's founder, Kiichiro Toyoda. In order
to become a certified company according to the Automotive Manufacturing Industries
Law (established in 1936), this unit was rushed to completion and sale. 379 units
were produced at a maximum payload of 1.5 tons. |
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The first passenger
car manufactured by Toyota. This was the first auto to use the then-advanced
American "streamlining," and was built with an emphasis on comfort.
When it first went on sale in Nagoya, its store price was 3,350
yen. 1,404 units were produced. |
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