Nagoya and a Museum that Spins a Good Yarn, Nagoya, Japan

Initially I was overwhelmed by the ultra-modern city of Nagoya. Complicated steel structures and impersonal sky scrapers everywhere. The only high-rise block that did not advertise its name in giant letters on the top was our hotel. I kept getting lost! The thought of visiting a car museum while I was there was the least appealing idea anyone had proposed on my journey through Japan. The alternative was more wanderings around the city centre. i went along with the idea and I am so glad I did as it was a day well spent.

The Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology, is one of several museums established by Toyota in and around Nagoya. It explores the history of the emergence of Toyota as a globally important company. The Toyota Automobile Museum) is a large collection of cars through the ages from all over the world. I was heading for the former, along with a large group of young Japanese businessmen.

I had expected to see at least one car on display when I entered the museum but instead pride of place goes to a Circular Loom (1906). This was my first clue that Toyota had not started as a car manufacturer. Toyota was founded in 1933 as the Toyota Motor Corporation as a division of the Toyoda Automatic Loom Works. The original company was founded by Sakichi Toyoda. Toyoda was born in 1867 just as Japan was emerging as a modern nation. As a young man he realised that mechanisation was the key to success. At the same time the silk industry was rapidly expanding in the area where he lived and he developed and patented machinery for spinning and weaving this natural fibre. He invented the Circular Loom in 1906. The museum occupies the pilot factory Toyoda established in 1911 to test his inventions that used various sources of power although his experiments with steam-power soon gave way to cheaper forms of power. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).