The first four cylinder car was a luxury sedan manufactured jointly by Tokyo Kunisue Automobile Works
and the Tokyo motor vehicle Works in 1911. It was propelled by a water cooled 1.3 liter L head engine
featuring a magneto ignition and achieved 16 plus horsepower. The amount of developments might sound
pretty good for a fledgling industry, but actual production numbers were still less than 50 total
automobiles by 1912.
And then came Masujiro Hashimoto...
The Teens and 20's D.A.T.
The roots of Datsun go back as far as 1911. It was then that Masujiro Hashimoto, an American trained
engineer, created Kwaishinsha Motors with the help of three investors. Hashimoto wasn't like most other
early Japanese automobile inventors, he had the advantage of several years of study in New York under
his belt. Hashimoto's dream was to build the first Japanese regular production automobile.
His first experimental car, completed in 1912, was not considered much of a success. The next real
attempt was the 1914 prototype for the DAT model 31, which was met with much more enthusiasm. It was
about this time that the company came up with the beginnings of the Datsun name.
The name comes,in part, from the names of the three original investors: Kenjiro D en who helped organize
the original company, Rokuro A oyama a childhood friend, and Meitaro T akeuchi- a cousin of a former
prime minister who helped arrange financing... hence the name DAT. Roughly translated it means "hare",
"fast rabbit", or "very fast" in Japanese, depending on whose translation you want to believe.
| The DAT model 31 was marketed in 1915, followed by the 1916 DAT model 41
, the later being produced straight through until 1925.
The Dat 41 was an "economy luxury" car, powered by a 15 horsepower engine, and was capable of carrying
5 passengers. Each one was hand made, thus total production numbers were low. Another reason for low
production numbers was that Japan relied on rail and shipping for all long distance travel at the time,
mostly because roads outside cities were still pretty primitive. Cars were pretty much confined to
cities. |
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1917 saw the restructuring of Kwaishinsha Motors due to financial difficulties. The company was
essentially taken over by its sales agency, and became the Dat Motor Vehicle Co, which apparently
used the Kwaishinsha name on some ventures.
This new company produced the Dat model51. According
to a couple of sources, a small 2 seat roadster version of the type 51 was nicknamed the Datson by
Hashimoto, as in "Son-of-Dat", probably because of the size difference
between it and the type 51 it was derived from. This version of the origin of the Datson name is
contradicted by other sources.
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| The model 51 was available in several body styles, including the Molel 15 Torpedo,
had a 15 horse water cooled engine, manual transmission, and conventional drivetrain. |
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DAT started a joint venture with Tokyo Gas Denki in the early twenties to produce industrial vehicles,
after a 1918 Japanese government law that gave financial support to manufacturers of military vehicles.
A very early picture of the factory with a Type 51 and a truck, Masujiro Hashimoto is actually standing
out front.
The came the event that would kick start the automobile industry in Japan. The Great Japanese
Earthquake of 1923 basically leveled vast amounts of industry and most conventional infrastructure,
including railroads. This was the break the struggling Japanese auto industry needed. Suddenly there
was a nationwide need for transportation, especially trucks. A lot of this transportation void was
filled by imported vehicles, Ford and GM mostly, but DAT got a share of the market.
Ford was the first American automaker to set up an assembly plant in Japan, doing so in 1925 with
the Japan Ford Motor Co. of Yokohama. GM followed in 1927 with the Japan General Motors company of
Osaka. Japanese assembled American vehicles dominated sales, driving some early domestic manufacturers
out of business.
DAT continued to build cars and trucks in Tokyo until 1926, when it absorbed Jitsuyo Jidosha Seizo
(the name means Practical Automobile Company) to form the Dat Automobile Manufacturing Co. of Osaka.
After the merger, both companies pretty much gave up the production of cars, and concentrated on
building trucks. JJS had been producing a car called the Lila up to this point,
a car designed by American William R. Gorham.
William R Gorham was born in 1888 in the US. At the age of 14 he built a motorized wagon by taking
a lawnmower engine and adapting it to his toy wagon. His professional interest first focused on
aircraft design, automobiles were too far along in development for his taste. In 1918 he answered
an ad from a Japanese company to design fighter airplanes, got the job, and moved his family to Japan.
When he got there, there was no need for fighter aircraft as the first world war had ended by then,
so Gorham set about designing the first motorized rickshaw; it was a huge success all over Southeast
Asia. He the set about designing the "Lila" automobiles, named after his wife. Gorham also became
a consultant for a young up and coming Japanese industrialist named Yoshisuke Aikawa, owner of
Tobata Casting. Gorham would become a major influence on the development of the company, initiating
the vast majority of DAT's and Nissans technological advances, and designing most of their cars.
30's and 40's
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The Beginnings of the Japanese Automobile. 