Toyota, where does the Toyota family live? This is their wonderful home

The Toyoda family, owner of the world’s number 1 Toyota brand, is the equivalent in Japan to what Agnellis represents in Italy.

Toyota is among the most important brands in the history of the automotive industry, thanks to its unique and timeless cars. Superstitionally, the Japanese brand name was chosen with a different character than the founders’ name. The reason is very simple, as it was stated that 8 strokes of the brush were enough by Toyota Japanese writing and this feature made a difference.

With superstition on their behalf, the Toyoda family risked everything on the Toyota name. At the time, Japanese cars were viewed with the same distrust as we commonly perceive Chinese cars today. Products like Toyota but also Nissan, Mitsubishi, Subaru tended to imitate European cars, especially domestic and English ones.

The brand has had an impressive boom with the birth of Corolla, Celica, Rav4 and more recently with Yaris, Prius and many other models that have made a spark in the world market. Toyota has also become a staple in motorsports, thanks to victories in the WEC championship and the 24 hours of Le Mans. Even on dirt roads, in the World Rally Championship, the brand has written important victory pages.

Only in Formula 1 has the brand failed to establish itself, but not for lack of resources. In those days, historic brands such as Ferrari, McLaren and Williams dictated the rules. Sakichi Toyoda is the father of the Japanese brand. The man was born in 1867 and died in 1930. In Japan he is considered an absolute legend, having forever changed the concept of movement on four wheels. He is considered one of the most influential Japanese inventors of all time, having founded an empire that has never known a problem until now.

Toyota, this is the home of Toyota

The Toyota Industries Group was headed by Sakichi Kiichiro’s son. The latter died in 1952 and was another important figure for the brand’s growth. The house was built in 1933 on the outskirts of Nagoya. The building spread over three floors and had a Japanese architectural style and western influences.

The great Spanish architect Gaudi was also commissioned to design the ground floor, while the second floor had a Western-style living room and dining room with wooden floors. The third floor, on the other hand, was characterized by a tatami floor. The mansion had a large greenhouse outside where the Toyota family tended flowers. The settlement was known as Minamyama farm.

Initially the house was used as a holiday home and only later they moved to live there. During World War II it was not requested because it had typical features of Western style buildings. In 1999 it was also restored and enhanced with a variety of new flowers to represent a new phase of growth.

The house is open to the public only once a year, in October. In 2011 a cherry tree was also planted which commemorates a new flowering period for the world’s number 1 brand. The address, if you want to visit, is Minami 250, Ikeda-cho, Toyota City.