Eiichi Okuma
Profile
Performance in office
Tenure
Tenure
Background
A native of Mitagawa village in Kanzaki district, Saga Prefecture, he ran a noodle-making machine factory in his hometown for about a year with his father-in-law, Eikichi Tsurusawa, and others, before moving to Nagoya at the end of 1897. He chose Nagoya because noodle consumption there was high and it was the hub of the Chubu region. In January 1898, using ¥300 from selling three noodle machines handed down by his father-in-law, he founded the sole proprietorship Okuma Noodle Machine Co. in Ishimachi 3-chome, Higashi-ku, Nagoya. He began by making and selling noodle machines he had invented himself, at the age of 28.
Selection
He was the first president, with no predecessor. In July 1918, after 20 years as a sole proprietorship, the business was reorganized as Okuma Iron Works Co., Ltd., capitalized at ¥1 million, with investment from Aichi Bank president Yoshiro Watanabe, Sosuke Okaya and others. Appointed Managing Director and plant manager at that time was Karoku Muraoka, a fellow Saga native he had brought from Saga in 1899. Even after outside capital came in, Eiichi was called the owner, and he appears to have remained at the center of management until Muraoka became President in February 1946.
Initiatives
In 1904, seizing on machinery demand from the Russo-Japanese War, he entered the manufacture of shell lathes and vertical shapers, and pushed domestic production of lathes, shapers, milling machines and grinders that had depended on imports. During World War I he won orders from the Army Arsenal for rifle and ammunition production machinery, and in 1917 succeeded in domestically producing cartridge-loading machines previously imported from Germany. He broadened the product line with cigarette-making machinery for the Monopoly Bureau in 1919, woolen looms in 1920 and knotless fishing-net machines in 1931, the last patented in eight countries including Japan, Britain, the United States and France. From around 1937 he shifted the focus back to machine tools, with the product range reaching 185 types.
Career
Career
Okuma Iron Works
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| Jan 1898 | President, Okuma Noodle Machinery Shokai (at founding) |
| Jul 1918 | 株式會社大隈鐵工所に改組 (translation pending) |
| Feb 1946 | Stepped down as President |
References 4
References (Japanese primary sources)
- オークマ 有価証券報告書【沿革】
- 和田宏『中部財界人物伝』（中部経済新聞社, 1957年）
- 会社銀行八十年史（1955年）「大隈鉄工所」
- 経済春秋社『企業の歴史 : 明治百年』「大隈鉄工所」（1968年）