Welcome to this new series Logo, historypodcastAutoPlus.fr which traces history of brands by their logos.

For this 19 episodewe head east to Japan, the origins of the largest engine manufacturer on the planet. Soichiro Honda. His name is on cars, motorcycles, ATVs, scooters, boat engines, business jets, generators, and even garden and DIY equipment.

But did you know it all started in a garage? To understand, let’s go back more than half a century and trace togetherThe history of Honda through the evolution of its logo!

Return to Soichiro Honda’s garage

It is 1906. Young Soichiro Honda, born to a family of blacksmiths in a small village near Mount Fuji, comes from nine children. Very early he became interested in cars. When he has free time, he helps his father repair bicycles in his family workshop. He is interested in everything, he observes and analyzes everything he finds with his hands. Near his house is a rice mill powered by a small engine that has fascinated him since childhood.

In 1922, Soichiro was only 15 years old when he already left school. Then he moved to a small car garage in Tokyo and started working. If at first he is assigned only menial tasks, he will quickly become, thanks to his seriousness, a reliable mechanic. Inspired, he returned to his native village and six years later decided to open his own garage.

During this period, Soichiro Honda participated, in addition to his work as a mechanic, in automobile races. If he is interested in cars, the small mechanics of motorcycles fascinates him just as much. He experimented with engines, and in 1937 founded his first piston company: Tohai Seiki Heavy Industry. The company grew, and he even managed to sell some of its parts to another future giant of the automotive industry, a certain Toyota…

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