Tokyu Kurogane Kogyo

Tokyu Kurogane Industries (東急くろがね工業^?, Tōkyū Kurogane Kōgyō), or Kurogane, was one of the first Japanese automakers. It built vehicles used during the Second World War until 1962 when a subsidiary of Nissan, called Nissan Machinery (Nissan Koki Co., Ltd. ), assumed operations as the company had become a member of the Nissan Group keiretsu. The word kurogane (くごがね or 鉄^?) 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.

The company can be traced back to the small company Shūkōsha (秀工舎^?) founded by Tetsuji Makita (蒔田鉄司) in 1917, which was a parts supplier for bicycles and motorcycles. Mr. Makita left the company in 1918 to work for Toyogawa Hayataya (豊川順彌) and the Hakuyosha Ironworks Company (白楊社), 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 (Nihon Jidōsha), a subsidiary of the Okura (大倉財閥) 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 (三輪) under the Kurogane brand for the Imperial Japanese Army in Ōmori, Ōta, Tokyo. When the zaibatsu were dismantled after the war, Kurogane was realligned 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.

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