The company's name,"Mazda, (マツダ Matsuda )" derives from Ahura Mazda, a god of the earliest civilizations of West Asia. We have interpreted Ahura Mazda, the god of wisdom, intelligence and harmony, as the symbol of the origins of both Eastern and Western civilization, and also the primitive symbol of the automobile culture. To understand why a Japanese company should choose a name from a Persian religion you need to go back to August 6th 1875, and the birth of Jujiro Matsuda the twelfth son of a poor Japanese fisherman.
Jujiro's father died while he was very young and after a spell at sea Jujiro became a Blacksmiths apprentice at the age of 13. By the time he was 19 he was running his own business with 50 workers, but it went bust, as did his next venture. Jujiro's next two business were successful, the latest being bought by a large steel company.
During World War 1, Japan was deprived of European Cork. A company called Toyo Cork Kogyo had been formed to utilize a domestic equivalent from the thick bark of the Abemaki tree. At wars end however with the resumption of superior European Cork supplies the company was in difficulty, and was reorganized by its primary lending bank.
Jujiro Matsuda was appointed to the companies board of directors, shortly afterwards he replaced the ill company President.
Not surprisingly Jujiro changed the companies direction from agriculture to manufacturing, and dropped the Cork part of the name in the process, so in 1927 began the Toyo (Orient) Kogyo (Industry) Kaisha (Company) Ltd. Much of the work was for Japans growing military, it was lucrative but fluctuated wildly. Matsuda saw more potential in civilian products.
1962
The R360 was replaced in 1962 with the Mazda P360 Carol, (the company's first 4-passenger car. It was larger than the Mazda R360 it replaced,(running on a 193 cm wheelbase for a total length of 298 cm. It used a rear-mounted water-cooled 358 cc 4-cylinder OHV engine,(the smallest 4-cylinder automobile engine in history.
