(The Toyoda Loom Company logo can be seen in the center, N-type loom)

Anything aprons made in Toyohashi, Aichi are still woven on Toyota looms.

Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of Toyoda, was born in 1867 in what is now Kosai City, Shizuoka Prefecture, next to Toyohashi City. He invented the Toyoda-type wooden hand-powered loom in 1890, and continued to research and develop looms, including the L-type iron automatic loom in 1909, the N-type wide-width power loom in 1914, and the G-type automatic loom in 1924, which was hailed as the best in the world, making a significant contribution to Japan's economic development.

The patent for the Type G loom was transferred to the British company Platt, and his eldest son, Kiichiro Toyoda, went on to research and develop domestic automobiles.

The loom still used to weave aprons today is the "N-type loom." It was invented in 1914, and the looms that weave modern aprons were manufactured in 1949, after the war, and are still in use today.

The thick, soft texture of the original apron fabric can only be expressed using this traditional shuttle loom.

We would like to cherish and pass on to future generations the Japanese aprons and their weaving techniques, which are closely linked to the industrial development of Japan and the history of Toyota.






(*The content of this article was based on a 2012 survey of Toyota Industries' Toyohashi Plant and was presented at the "Nippon Maekake Exhibition" held at the Consulate-General of Japan in New York.)