Tokyu Kogyo Kurogane


Tokyu Kurogane Industries, or Kurogane, was one of the first Japanese automakers. It built vehicles from about 1926 until 1962 when a subsidiary of Nissan, called Nissan Machinery, assumed operations as the company had become a member of the Nissan Group keiretsu. The word kurogane is an old term for iron, and one of the kanji used in Mr. Makita's first name. Remnants of the company were called Nissan Machinery until 1985, and operated as a separate entity within Nissan Techno until 2006, building and developing all of Nissan's current engines.

History

The company can be traced back to the small company Shūkōsha founded by Tetsuji Makita in 1917, which was a parts supplier for bicycles and motorcycles. Mr. Makita left the company in 1918 to work for Toyogawa Hayataya and the Hakuyosha Ironworks Company, manufacturer of the Otomo car, having manufactured 300 by 1927. The company actively entered in the automobile market in the 1920s when Mr. Makita returned in 1926, and then merged with the Japan Automobile, a subsidiary of the Okura zaibatsu, which changed its name to Japan Internal Combustion Engine Company Ltd. in 1932. It then manufactured cars, motorcycles and three-wheeled trucks, or sanrin under the Kurogane brand for the Imperial Japanese Army in Ōmori, Ōta, Tokyo. When the zaibatsu were dismantled after the war, Kurogane was realigned from remnants of the Nissan Group zaibatsu. Kurogane, like many other Japanese manufacturers prospered as a supplier for the United States Army during the Korean War, but when the conflict ended in 1953, Japan entered into a recession and smaller companies suffered as a result. It assumed operations of another company called Ohta Automobiles in 1957. In 1959, it became part of the Tokyu Corporation as a manufacturer of cars, trucks and farm equipment until Nissan assumed operations.
Former names and merged smaller companies include Japan Internal Combustion Engine Co., Ltd., Japan Internal Combustion Engine Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Japan Automobile Industry Co., Ltd., Japan Minicar Co., Ltd. and Tokyu Kurogane Industrial Co., Ltd.
When Kurogane began manufacturing vehicles, they were considered in Japan one of the surviving four original manufacturers, the other three being Datsun, Isuzu, and Mazda. For the brief time Kurogane produced vehicles, their market focus was on commercial vehicles for logistics and small business manufacturing transport. Kurogane found the commercial market crowded, competing with the Prince Homer, Nissan Diesel, Isuzu Elf, Mitsubishi Fuso Canter, Toyota Dyna and the Hino TH-series. In 1963 when Nissan assumed operations, the Kurogane Mighty was re-branded with minor body changes as the Datsun Cablight. Kurogane management structure and assets were now under Nissan corporate structure, much the same as the arrangement when Nissan merged with Prince Motor Company, while the Kurogane name was not used. In 1964, Kurogane was no longer considered part of the Tokyu Corporation. The company became known as Nissan Machinery in 1970, with their efforts used for engine development.

Vehicles manufactured

  • Kurogane Type 95, the world's first four-wheel drive vehicle to be placed into mass production in 1936
  • Kurogane Sanrin, three-wheeler truck based on the Harley-Davidson Servi-Car developed by the Rikuo Motorcycle brandname
  • Kurogane Mighty, a four-wheel, mid-sized, cabover truck/cargo van, it was taken over by Nissan and sold as the "Cablight".
  • Kurogane Baby, a keitora / microvan cabover vehicle in cargo van and pickup truck bodystyles
  • Ohta KE/VM, a legacy product taken over from Ohta and sold under that name from 1957 until 1959 with the 48-PS E13 engine.
  • Kurogane Nova 1500, a rebranded Ohta series KE truck and VM series delivery van : The Nova received a 1.5-L engine with and managed a payload.

    Three-wheeled trucks

Kurogane began building three-wheeled trucks in 1936. Based on the Harley-Davidson Servi-Car, they also used V-twin engines of various displacements to suit the weight categories. The biggest V-twin built by Kurogane was the 1360-cc VYA engine from the mid-1950s. In 1958, a water-cooled, four-cylinder engine was introduced for the KS truck; this was the 1.3-L E-13 engine. As Mazda switched to water-cooled, inline-fours for their entire three-wheeled truck lineup, Kurogane soon followed suit and added the 1046-cc E-10 in 1959 and then the 1.5-L E-15 engine, which was also used in their four-wheeled vehicles. Kurogane's heaviest three-wheelers were models like the KF and the later KY.

Engines developed as Nissan Machinery