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Soichiro Honda (本田 宗一郎, Honda Sōichirō, November 17, 1906 – August 5, 1991) was a Japanese engineer and industrialist, and founder of Honda Motor Co., Ltd.. Soichiro was born in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan. Image File history File links Emblem-important. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... 17 November is also the name of a Marxist group in Greece, coinciding with the anniversary of the Athens Polytechnic uprising. ... 1906 (MCMVI) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... is the 217th day of the year (218th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the 1991 Gregorian calendar). ... Look up engineer in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Business magnate. ... This article is about the Japanese motor corporation. ... Hamamatsu (浜松市; -shi) is a city located in western Shizuoka, Japan. ... Shizuoka Prefecture ) is located in the ChÅ«bu region on HonshÅ« island, Japan. ...

Honda spent his early childhood helping his father, Gihei, a blacksmith, with his bicycle repair business. At the time his mother, Mika, was a weaver. At 15, without any formal education, Honda arrived in Tokyo to look for work. He obtained an apprenticeship at a garage in 1922, and after some vacillation over his employment, he stayed for six years, working as a car mechanic before returning home to start his own auto repair business in 1928 at the age of 22. For other uses, see Tokyo (disambiguation). ...

In 1948 Honda began producing piston rings for small engines which lead to manufacturing small engines to be used in motorcycles, and then started producing complete motorcycles as president of the Honda Motor Company. Honda turned the company into a billion-dollar multinational that produced the best-selling motorcycles in the world. Honda's excellent engineering and clever marketing resulted in Honda motorcycles out-selling Triumph and Harley-Davidson in their respective home markets. In 1959 Honda Motorcycles opened its first dealership in the United States. For other uses, see Motorcycle (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Motorcycle (disambiguation). ... This article is about the Japanese motor corporation. ... Triumph Motorcycles is an English motorcycle manufacturer, originally based in Coventry. ... Logo on a 2003 Harley Davidson The Harley-Davidson Motor Company (NYSE: HDI) is a manufacturer of motorcycles based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. ... Year 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the Japanese motor corporation. ...

Honda remained president until his retirement in 1973, stayed on as director, and was appointed "supreme adviser" in 1983. His legendary status was such that People magazine placed him on their "25 Most Intriguing People of the Year" list for 1980, dubbing him "the Japanese Henry Ford." In retirement Honda busied himself with work connected with the Honda Foundation. He died in 1991 from liver failure. Year 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar). ...

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Soichiro Honda

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Early years

Soichiro Honda was born in Yamahigashi on November 17 1906. His father, Gihei Honda, was the local blacksmith but could turn his hands to most things, including dentistry when the need arose. His mother, Mika, was a weaver. 1906 (MCMVI) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...

Honda's subsequent spirit of adventure and determination to explore the development of new technology had its roots in his childhood. The family was not wealthy, but Gihei Honda instilled into his children the ethic of hard work, and a love of mechanical things. Soichiro soon learned how to whet the blades of farm machinery, and how to make his own toys. A nearby rice mill was powered by a small engine, and the noise fascinated him. He would demand daily that his grandfather take him to watch it in action. At school he got the nickname 'black nose weasel', which is less derogatory in Japanese than it sounds in English, because his face was always dirty from helping his father in the forge. A machine is any mechanical or electrical device that transmits or modifies energy to perform or assist in the performance of tasks. ... Students in Rome, Italy. ... // A nickname is a name of a person or thing other than its proper name. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

Soichiro Honda's childhood days are full of examples of technical ingenuity, including using a bicycle pedal rubber to forge his family's seal on school reports that were less than promising. Childhood (song) Childhood is a broad term usually applied to the phase of development in humans between infancy and adulthood. ...

The bicycles had another use: those that his father sold from the shop he subsequently opened helped Honda to hone his engineering skills. As he grew, the dream of the car on the country road acted like a magnetic force, drawing him ever closer towards things mechanical. In 1917 a pilot called Art Smith flew into the Wachiyama military airfield to demonstrate his biplane's aerobatic capabilities. Honda raided the family's petty cash box, 'borrowed' one of his father's bicycles and rode the 20 kilometers to a place he had never before visited. When he got there he soon realized that the price of admission, let alone a flight, was far beyond his meagre means, but after climbing a tree he watched the plane in motion, and that was enough. When Gihei Honda learned what his son had done to get to the airfield, he was more impressed with his initiative, determination and resilience than he was angry with him for taking the money and the bike. Art Smith posing in the muzzle of a 12-inch mortar at the Presidio of San Francisco during the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition Art Smith was an American pilot. ... For other uses, see Cash (disambiguation). ... This mountain bicycle features oversized tires, a sturdy frame, front shock absorbers, and handlebars oriented perpendicular to the bikes axis Bicycle may also refer to Bicycle Playing Cards. ... A kilometre (American spelling: kilometer) (symbol: km) is a unit of length equal to 1000 metres (from the Greek words khilia = thousand and metro = count/measure). ... For other uses, see Airport (disambiguation). ...

Art Shokai

By 1922 Honda was working in an auto shop in Tokyo called Art Shokai. Initially he had done menial tasks, but more and more he became a trusted mechanic. He worked on the racing car Art Daimler, then the famous machine born from the marriage of a Curtiss aircraft engine and an American Mitchell chassis. The need to make parts for this monster taught him things that would be invaluable later in life. Year 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see Tokyo (disambiguation). ...

When Shinichi Sakibahara raced the car for the first time at Tsurumi, and won the Chairman's Trophy, the young man riding alongside as his mechanic was Soichiro Honda. He was 17 years old.

As customers brought in Mercedes, Lincolns and Daimlers for attention, Honda's experience grew in proportion with his ambition. Four years after that first race he started his own Art Shokai auto shop in Hamamatsu. Mercedes was the brand of the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft before being merged with Benz & Cie. ... Lincoln is an American luxury automobile brand, operated under the Ford Motor Company. ... Daimler (pronounced Dame-ler) has, since 1896, been the motor car marque of the British Daimler Motor Company, based in Coventry. ...

Yet Honda himself never sought dominance in his homeland. At a time when nationalism was at its peak, he always saw the bigger picture. "I knew that if I could succeed in the world market," he said, "then automatically it would follow that we led in the Japanese market." For the meaning of the word dominance in genetics, please see Dominance relationship Dominance in the context of biology and anthropology is the state of having high social status relative to other individuals, who react submissively to dominant individuals. ...

Honda Motor Co. Ltd.

Employees in the Art Shokai shop soon came to understand that sloppy workmanship and poor performance would not be tolerated, but while Honda's tool-hurling antics did not always encourage loyalty, those who stayed recognized his total determination to succeed and to establish an engineering business second to none. And Honda was sufficiently aware of his own managerial shortcomings. Honda Motor Co. Ltd. was established in September 1948, initially to build small capacity motorcycles to get Japanese workers mobile. Honda focused his considerable energies on the engineering side, using all the experience he had painstakingly accumulated, including time out taken to study piston ring design at Hamamatsu tech and subsequent experimentation with a small engine-powered bicycle. He left the running of the company in the hands of Takeo Fujisawa, his most trusted friend, and urged him to look to the long-term. They complemented one another perfectly. Engineering is the discipline of acquiring and applying knowledge to design, analysis, and/or construction of works for practical purposes. ... Spring-loaded piston rings. ... For other uses, see Bicycle (disambiguation). ...

When the first fruits of their partnership hit the streets, it was a 98 cc two-stroke motorcycle appropriately named 'Dream'. A partnership is a type of business entity in which partners share with each other the profits or losses of the business undertaking in which all have invested. ... For other uses, see Motorcycle (disambiguation). ...

Several times Honda Motor Co. sailed close to the rocks in the years that followed, for both Honda and Fujisawa were gamblers who knew that expansion would only be possible with risk. Growth at one stage was unprecedented, until the purchase of state-of-the-art machinery in the early Fifties led them perilously close to bankruptcy. But Honda was never faint-hearted. A machine is any mechanical or electrical device that transmits or modifies energy to perform or assist in the performance of tasks. ...

Racing

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"Racing is in our blood," former president Nobuhiko Kawamoto once admitted. Image File history File links Gnome_globe_current_event. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... President is a title held by many leaders of organizations, companies, trade unions, universities, and countries. ...

Later, when the Juno bike flopped and bankruptcy again beckoned, his reaction was to embark on the Tourist Trophy race program that would eventually make Honda's name as an international motorcycle manufacturer. It took him five years, but by 1959 Hondas were racing on the Isle of Man. Two years later they won the TT. For other uses, see Motorcycle (disambiguation). ... The Isle of Man TT (Tourist Trophy), or Manx TT, is a motorcycle racing event held on the Isle of Man. ...

In 1963, a 1.5 litre V12, designed by Honda engineer (and future president) Tadashi Kume, was produced for Formula One.

In 1966, Honda entered Formula Two (1.0 litre) racing and Jack Brabham won 11 straight races, becoming the F2 champion. Meanwhile, F1's displacement limit grew to 3.0 litres; Honda produced a 400-hp V-12 engine for the revised class.

Still in 1966, Honda won the Constructor's Championships in all five motorcycle Grand Prix classes.

In 1967, John Surtees won the Italian Grand Prix Formula One race, Honda's first 3.0 litre F1 victory.

Last years

Even at his advanced age, Soichiro and his wife Sachi both held private pilot's licences. He also enjoyed skiing, hang-gliding and ballooning at 77, and he was a highly accomplished artist. He and Fujisawa made a pact never to force their own sons to join the company. His son, Hirotoshi Honda, was the founder and former CEO of Mugen Motorsports, a tuner for Honda vehicles who also created original racing vehicles. Cross-country skiing (skating style) in Einsiedeln, Switzerland. ... Hang gliding is an air sport, hobby, a vocation, passive experience, or even profession wherein humans pilot their hang gliders. ... Balloons are often used or given on special occasions, like cards or flowers. ... The definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of activities to do with creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. ... Hirotoshi Honda (本田博俊), founder of Mugen Motorsports is the son of Soichiro Honda, the man who founded the Honda Motor Company. ... Mugen Motorsports (M-Tec Co. ...

Soichiro Honda died on August 5, 1991 of liver failure. is the 217th day of the year (218th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the 1991 Gregorian calendar). ... For the bird, see Liver bird. ...

External links

• Soichiro Honda at hondanews.com
• Biography, Timeline and Quotes by Soichiro Honda at myviplife.com
• Motorcycle Hall of Fame Biography: Soichiro Honda