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was a Japanese businessman and the founder of Hayakawa Kinzoku Kōgyō (the present-day
Hayakawa was born in Tokyo in 1893. Due to difficult domestic circumstances, he was adopted by the Ideno family. He left primary school after second grade due to his family’s poverty and was apprenticed to a maker of metallic ornaments.
Hayakawa was inspired to invent a new belt that could be fastened to any length and developed a buckle that used a roller to fasten a belt without puncturing it. Tokuji applied for a patent, using the name “Tokubijō.” When Hayakawa launched his buckle in 1912, demand in Japan for the buckle increased with the spread of Western-style fashions.
The first order for the Tokubijō buckle was huge — 33 grosses or 4,752 in total. Tokuji decided to produce his buckle independently. He borrowed most of the capital and opened his own manufacturing operation in September 1912. His manufacturing process steadily improved, and the business expanded.
In 1913, Hayakawa acquired the patent of an innovative water faucet, and in 1915, he developed the prototype of the Sharp automatic pencil still sold today. Later, he expanded his enterprise into electronics manufacturing of radios, tape-recorders and televisions. He was also active in social welfare programs. He died in 1980 at the age of 86.
Sharp Corporation
is a Japanese electronics company. It is headquartered in Sakai, Osaka, and was founded by Tokuji Hayakawa in 1912 in Honjo, Tokyo, and established as the Hayakawa Metal Works Institute in Abeno-ku, Osaka, in 1924. Since 2016, it is majority o ...
). He invented and patented the “Tokubijō” belt buckle
A belt buckle is a buckle, a clasp for fastening two ends, such as of straps or a belt (clothing), belt, in which a device attached to one of the ends is fitted or coupled to the other. The word enters Middle English via Old French and the ...
in 1912 (a belt which can fasten without perforating) and invented the "Ever Ready Sharp" mechanical pencil
A mechanical pencil or clutch pencil is a pencil with a replaceable and mechanically extendable solid pigment core called a "lead" . The pencil lead, lead, often made of graphite, is not bonded to the outer casing, and the user can mechanically e ...
(from which his company would later get its name) in 1915.
The success of the “Tokubijō” belt buckle led to Hayakawa starting his own metallurgical
Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys.
Metallurgy encompasses both the ...
processing, which then developed into the present-day Sharp Corporation.
Life
Hayakawa was born in Tokyo in 1893. Due to difficult domestic circumstances, he was adopted by the Ideno family. He left primary school after second grade due to his family’s poverty and was apprenticed to a maker of metallic ornaments.
Hayakawa was inspired to invent a new belt that could be fastened to any length and developed a buckle that used a roller to fasten a belt without puncturing it. Tokuji applied for a patent, using the name “Tokubijō.” When Hayakawa launched his buckle in 1912, demand in Japan for the buckle increased with the spread of Western-style fashions.
The first order for the Tokubijō buckle was huge — 33 grosses or 4,752 in total. Tokuji decided to produce his buckle independently. He borrowed most of the capital and opened his own manufacturing operation in September 1912. His manufacturing process steadily improved, and the business expanded.
In 1913, Hayakawa acquired the patent of an innovative water faucet, and in 1915, he developed the prototype of the Sharp automatic pencil still sold today. Later, he expanded his enterprise into electronics manufacturing of radios, tape-recorders and televisions. He was also active in social welfare programs. He died in 1980 at the age of 86.
Honors
''Translated from the article in the Japanese Wikipedia''National
*Medal of Honor with Blue Ribbon (1960) * Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold and Silver Star, Second Class (1976) (Third Class: 1965)Other
*Award from the city of Osaka (1968) *Okochi Production Award (1971) *Osaka Cultural Award (1971) *29th NHK Broadcasting Culture Award (1978)References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hayakawa, Tokuji 20th-century Japanese engineers Japanese company founders Sharp Corporation people Businesspeople from Tokyo 1893 births 1980 deaths