The character arc of Soichiro Honda
Born 17 November 1906 in Hamamatsu. Died 5 August 1991 in Tokyo. Between the two sit a garage apprenticeship begun at fifteen, a race crash that ended his driving, a factory taken by bombs and another by an earthquake, a wooden hut where the company began again, and a declaration, made while nearly broke, that his machines would race the hardest event on earth. The line below draws that whole life in order.
Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who was Soichiro Honda?
The factory fell twice. The founder did not.
A blacksmith's son who chased the first car he ever saw down the road, he went to Tokyo at fifteen to sweep floors in a garage and came home six years later a mechanic. His piston ring company supplied Toyota only after his first samples failed inspection, a rejection he answered by going back to school for metallurgy without ever enrolling for the diploma.
The war years took nearly everything: bombers hit his plant, and the Mikawa earthquake of 1945 took what was left. He sold the remains to Toyota, rested for a year on the proceeds, and called it his human holiday. Then, in 1946, he screwed surplus generator engines onto bicycles in a wooden hut in Hamamatsu, and the Honda Technical Research Institute began.
In 1954, with the company close to broke, he announced it would race the Isle of Man TT, the hardest motorcycle event on earth. Honda arrived in 1959 and by 1961 swept the top five places in two classes. The engines that followed put the world on two wheels, then four, and in 1972 the CVCC became the first engine to pass America's new clean air law without a catalytic converter. His line is worth reading for the year after each collapse.
The moments
Soichiro Honda's timeline.
The 1920s
Apprenticed at Art Shokai
Everyday. Fifteen years old, sweeping floors in a Tokyo garage and learning engines by watching.
His own branch garage
Milestone. Sent home to Hamamatsu to run a branch at twenty one, the only apprentice so trusted.
The 1930s
The race crash
Setback. A serious crash at the rally ended his racing; the love of fast machines survived it.
Founded Tokai Seiki
Milestone. Piston rings for Toyota, won only after his first samples failed the inspection.
The 1940s
Bombers found the factory
Setback. The war effort had taken the plant; the bombing runs took much of it back.
The earthquake took the rest
Setback, and it changed his direction. What the bombs had spared, the ground finished. He sold the remains to Toyota and rested.
Rest on the sale, or begin again
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: begin again in the hut, taken, or live quietly on the Toyota money. He called the year off his human holiday, and then went back to work for forty five more.
Began again in a hut
Milestone, and it changed everything. A wooden shack in Hamamatsu, surplus generator engines, and bicycles that needed help.
The Dream Type D
Milestone. The first true Honda motorcycle. He named it the Dream, and meant it.
The 1950s
Declared for the Isle of Man
Everyday, and it changed his direction. The company was close to broke; he announced they would race the world's hardest event anyway.
Rode into the Isle of Man
Milestone. First entry, and the team prize in the 125 class: the announcement had been kept.
The 1960s
Swept the Isle of Man
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Two classes, and the top five places in each. Five years from the declaration.
The first Honda car
Milestone. A tiny truck and a sports car, from a company the ministry had told to stay on two wheels.
The 1970s
CVCC passed the impossible test
Milestone, and it changed his direction. The first engine to pass America's new clean air law without a catalytic converter.
Retired on schedule
Everyday. He stepped down at sixty six and spent the years after visiting every plant to thank the hands.
The line ends 5 Aug 1991, in Tokyo. What it set moving has not ended: the company from the wooden hut still puts the world on wheels, and every builder who starts again in the rubble is working from his blueprint.
Your turn
Every story draws a unique line.
His took eighty four years and two ruined factories. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about three minutes.
Sources
- Tetsuo Sakiya, Honda Motor: The Men, the Management, the Machines, 1982.
- The Honda Motor Company official history, global.honda.
- The Isle of Man TT records, 1959 and 1961.
- The Mikawa earthquake record, January 1945.
- The United States Clean Air Act compliance record for the CVCC, 1972.