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

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

Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of Toyoda, was born in 1867 in what is now Kosai City, Shizuoka Prefecture, next to Toyohashi City. He continued to research and develop weaving machines, beginning with the Toyoda-type wooden hand-powered loom in 1890, followed by 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 acclaimed to be the best in the world, and made a major contribution to Japan's economic development.

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

The "N-type loom" is still used to weave aprons today. 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 is only possible with this traditional shuttle loom.

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






(*The above information was presented at the "Japanese Aprons Exhibition" at the Consulate General of Japan in New York, based on a survey of Toyota Industries' "Toyohashi Factory" in 2012.)
http://www.anything.ne.jp/maekakehanpu3.jpg