REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, By: Nasihin Masha
At Toyota museum in Nagoya, Japan, there is a wooden statue. Most visitors do not care about the statue. The statue is beautiful. A mother was sitting. She was weaving with traditional loom. The activity is what we usually find on a traditional tribes in Indonesia, as in Sasak, Lombok.
However, museum guides gave important meaning of the statue. Sakichi Toyoda (1867-1930) started his business empire because of his love for his mother. His mother was a weaver. The old-fashioned way was unproductive, slow, and the thread was often broken. Sakichi thought hard how his mother's loom could be more productive, efficient, and superior in quality. To help his mother, he was doing a lot of research. He became known as an inventor and industrialist. He awarded as father of industrial revolution in Japan and also as Thomas Alva Edison of Japan.
Sakichi's father was a carpenter. Sakichi life journey was a combination of his father and mother's life. Carpenter is a creator. Sakichi inherited that skill, he created loom for his mother. His first finding was a wooden hand looms in 1890. His mother no need to sit on the floor, but just sat in a chair that was attached to the loom. Two years later he found a foot loom, also wood loom. After that, he started to make an iron loom. He also found a spinning wheel, a bullet to launch a thread, and so on. Ranging from manual to automatic.
He also created a technique if there was an error, as there was one thread broke, the loom was automatically stopped, so it would not produce fabric defects. He also created automatic system to turn the sloop. The finding of this type of sloop enhanced automatic loom type G, which became the best loom in the world at the time. The production could be 20 times greater than other automatic looms. This was the peak of Sakichi inventory in 1924. To produce automatic loom Type G, he made more than of 50 patented findings. One other historical findings was circular loom. This tool was specially installed in the museum's lobby.
More findings invented by Sakichi makes Japanese textile industry developed and be one of the most advanced in the world. But Sakichi's dream did not stop in textiles sector, he saw Europe and the United States were succeeded in developing a modern transportation equipment: cars. Sakichi ordered his son, Kiichiro (1894-1952) to conduct research and cooperation with them. Kiichiro came to the UK and the US. They worked together and learned from Ford and General Motors (GM), two automotive companies in the United States. They were also learned from other companies in the UK. They handed patented weaving machines Type G to get to learn about automotive technology. Kiichiro was much assigned to study in Europe and the US. He traveled first in 1921 and in 1929. Kiichiro began to form automotive division in 1933, then established his own company in 1937.
Toyoda family was a simple family. Initially, the company name was not a Toyota, but Toyoda. But they did not want the family name became the company name. They held a contest and name 'Toyota' was chosen. This happened in 1936. Sakichi conducted research after issuance of Copyright Act in 1885. The period of Meiji Restoration was a time when Japan had massive modernization. The issuance of the Act was one of them, which encouraged children to work. "This is it," said Sakichi when the Act was issued - compared to the issuance of with the birth of the Copyright Act in Indonesia which is more protecting foreign patents.
Since then, Sakichi thought, "I decided my whole life to find something." The spirit of Monozukuri has become the spirit of the Japanese people. He combined spirit of Meiji with traditional Japanese spirit. Mono means goods, and zukuri means make. So, Monozukuri means making goods. Soichiro Toyoda (born in 1925), third generation of founder of Toyota, brought up this spirit during a speech after received a Star Services award from the Government of Indonesia on 15th December 2015. "The spirit of Monozukuri be our driving force," he said.
Looking back on a visit to the museum of Toyota and re-imagining a statue of a mother who was weaving. There was no passion to highlight the statue. It was placed in usual place. Japanese people are too humble to highlight their personal ego. The museum highlighted the history of inventory and hard work of Toyoda family in building Toyota in the frame of advancing Japanese spirit and humanity. The museum was also not putting the latest achievements, but a series of 'small' discoveries in the early period. But in my heart, Sakichi was not only commemorate the Meiji Restoration but also the devotion of a child to his mother.
