History of Establishment

Issey Hatakeyama was

founder and an

outstanding businessman.

01

Early life

Issey Hatakeyama was born in Kanazawa-shi, Ishikawa Prefecture in 1881, as the youngest child of three sons and three daughters. His ancestors were the Hatakeyama family of Noto Province whose first generation head was Mitsunori Hatakeyama, a shugo daimyo (provincial military governor who became a feudal lord) from Noto Province active in the Muromachi period. Counting from that time, Issey was the 18th generation, so he was originally from a very wealthy family.

However, his family fortune waned with the times and by the time of his early childhood he had fallen into poverty. His living conditions were so severe that instead of going to an elementary school close to his home, he went to Sado (Niigata), where his brother-in-law was living, to receive his support and attend higher elementary school (equivalent to the higher grades of current elementary school) there. In Sado there were no junior or senior high schools (both according to the former educational system), so he later returned to Kanazawa and graduated with the help of financial support from his brother-in-law. His brother-in-law also assisted with his university expenses, allowing him to graduate with a university education as well.

He recalled that when he was a child, he was so competitive and stubborn that he was later told by acquaintances “You really act like someone descended from a lord,” and that he did not care at all if others spoke badly of him.

02

Meeting Dr. Inokuty

Issey moved on to higher education at Tokyo Imperial University and majored in mechanical engineering. Speaking on the background for the selection of his major, he said in later years, “I didn’t have any particular interest in machines. But a person with a mechanical background can find work at a research laboratory or other place in the city. And, I can always be immersed in the city atmosphere. That was the main reason I chose mechanical engineering.” However, since his brother-in-law had supported his school expenses, he studied diligently, partly with the spirit of returning the favor.

While he was attending the university, Issey met Dr. Ariya Inokuty, who was also from Ishikawa and who became his teacher. Issey later established the Inokuty Type Machinery Office to apply the theories of Dr. Inokuty to commercial businesses. At the time, Dr. Inokuty was in the Faculty of Engineering at Tokyo Imperial University, where he was known as an authority on hydraulics and applied mechanics and also conducted research on pumps. The principles behind pumps have been known since the time of the ancient Greeks, and were later developed further in Europe as equipment technology for irrigation.

The family of Dr. Ariya Inokuty in 1905

Dr. Inokuty advanced his research while applying his own improvements and mathematical explanations, and in 1905 published the world’s first systematic thesis on centrifugal pumps, titled “Theory of Ordinary Centrifugal Pumps and of a New Centrifugal Pump having Divergent Vortex Chamber provided with Guide Vanes for producing Forced Vortex.”

Based on this theory, an experimental 180 mm turbine pump was manufactured and tested at the Shibaura Engineering Works of that time. It yielded results which were better than ever seen before in those days, with a pump head of 130 feet (39.5 m) and an average efficiency of 69%. These results were published in a paper titled “Result of a Forced Vortex Centrifugal Pump” which astonished many Western scholars.

03

Two events of employment and bankruptcy

After his university graduation, Issey found employment at a small machine company called Suzuki Tekkosho, while keeping his ambition of someday becoming an executive, developing products with his own technology and selling them. Even though he had many options for employment, the reasons he deliberately chose to work at a small company like Suzuki Tekkosho were that he could be hired as a chief engineer and gain extensive experience, and that it was a company managed by the unique individual Tozaburo Suzuki. At that time, Tozaburo Suzuki was well-known as a businessman, inventor, and politician, and was spoken of as “the father of Japan’s modern sugar refining industry.” He was also famous for his belief in Kinjiro Ninomiya’s spirit of moral requital. Issey was deeply impressed by these ideas of repayment and gratitude that he learned from Suzuki, which significantly influenced his outlook on life and management. As a chief engineer, he gained experience under Suzuki in large-scale facility design and installation work. However, five years later, a series of accidents and misfortune led to the bankruptcy of Suzuki Tekkosho in 1910.

When Issey went to Tokyo Imperial University, where his former teacher Dr. Inokuty was working, to report on his current situation, Kunitomo Kikai Seisakusho was recommended to him as a place to find employment. Kunitomo Seisakusho was a small machine tool manufacturer to whom Dr. Inokuty had commissioned manufacturing operations in order to commercially apply his theories on centrifugal pumps. As mentioned previously, Dr. Inokuty’s pump theories were highly praised across the world. Issey felt it would be a great honor as a former student of Dr. Inokuty’s to assist in incorporating those theories into business, so he made the decision to join the company.

However, two years later on November 3, 1912, Kunitomo Seisakusho also went bankrupt, as a result of excessive capital investments that ultimately backfired. At that time, the company owned roughly 50 machines with nearly 100 employees. Due to the aspirations to become a manager which he had held for a long time, and his wish as a favorite student of Dr. Inokuty’s to continue the Dr.’s globally recognized centrifugal pump business himself, Issey then made the decision to establish an office with five or six workers from Kunitomo Seisakusho.

04

Establishment of the Inokuty Type Machinery Office

After making his decision to establish an office together with several workers from Kunitomo Seisakusho, Issey visited Dr. Inokuty on the night of the bankruptcy and asked to be allowed to take over his pump work. Dr. Inokuty promised that he would give his full support, but since Issey did not have enough money to independently maintain a plant, he planned to only be responsible for design and sales, and for production to be outsourced. Issey immediately rented the second floor of an industrial magazine company in Ginza (Higashinabe-cho, Kyobashi-ku, Tokyo) and established the Inokuty Type Machinery Office, the predecessor of EBARA Corporation, with Dr. Inokuty as Senior Manager and Issey as Manager.

Issey was 30 years old at the time. Since Dr. Inokuty’s current occupation was as a university professor, he could not become a representative of a commercial company and assumed the title of Senior Manager. Even after the company became EBARA Corporation, however, Dr. Inokuty took on the position of Advisor with Issey as Senior Managing Director, and Issey did not adopt the role of President while Dr. Inokuty was in life.

1,140 mm centrifugal pump delivered to Tokyo’s Asakusa Tamachi Pump Station

(current Nihonzutsumi Pumping Station), Tokyo

With no plants or funds, the office had no choice but to rely on its ingenuity and intelligence to sell its technology. In addition to creating designs for orders, it carried out research based on Dr. Inokuty’s theories, and dedicated itself to producing high-quality pumps even if they were in small quantities. As a result, its products gained recognition in the industry and orders for them gradually increased. In the third year since the establishment of the office, it was finally able to own its first self-funded plant in Nippori, Tokyo. When it was first established, it was a small local workshop with about 20 employees. The office did not have enough money to install the mechanical equipment that had been arranged. All it could equip itself with were nine small machines with no cranes or assembly plants. Since it could not carry out the full range of processes from mechanical processing to assembly of large pumps, machining was performed to the extent possible at the plant and the pumps were then taken to work sites where all assembly and testing procedures were performed. In addition, the plant had a dirt floor and the building leaked severely. During heavy rains, the floor quickly turned into mud. Despite these difficult business environments, Issey overcame them with his passion and sense of ingenuity toward work. Notable pumps that were ordered, designed, and manufactured at that time included centrifugal pumps with a diameter of 760 mm ordered in 1915 and installed at the Mikawashima Sewage Treatment Plant, and centrifugal pumps with a diameter of 1,140 mm ordered in 1916 and installed at the Asakusa Tamachi Drainage Pump Station.

The pumps at Asakusa Tamachi were in active use for more than 40 years until they were removed in 1963, and one of the removed pumps is even now set up in the entrance lobby of EBARA Corporation’s head office.

Regarding the management of the plant, Issey stated that in that period it was commonplace for local workshops to use an apprenticeship system centered around a master, but he eliminated that system and adopted a thorough technology-first policy, so his employees were able to devote themselves single-mindedly to pump design and production.

Scholars attending the relocation ceremony of the Inokuty Type Machinery Office (Shinbori-cho, Shiba-ku)

05

Friendship with university professors

When the office was first established, Dr. Inokuty gave his full support to its work but his obligations at the university prevented him from visiting frequently. Issey made visits to the Dr.’s home instead. He also consulted professors specializing in machinery and shipbuilding at the University of Tokyo and always maintained close relationships with university staff. The office, which had scarce capital and meager facilities, was able to improve its performance and technical capabilities thanks to the support it received from Dr. Inokuty and many other professors. As a result, the Nippori Plant received pump orders from customers including the Taichung City Waterworks Bureau in Taiwan, and the Mikawashima Sewage Treatment Plant and Asakusa Tamachi Drainage Pump Station in Tokyo, allowing it to show the world that it possessed outstanding technology even though it was a small local workshop with minimal facilities.

06

Establishment of EBARA Corporation

In May 1920, the Inokuty Type Machinery Office which was under individual management by Issey was reborn as EBARA Corporation with a capital of 3 million yen. Together with its establishment as a stock company, a new plant was built near Minamishinagawa-juku, Shinagawa-machi, Ebara-gun, Tokyo, near the current Osaki Station on the JR Yamanote Line. With a site area of 8,000 tsubo (26,446 m2) and a plant floor area of 350 tsubo (1,157 m2), it was the first modern specialized pump plant in Japan with state-of-the-art (at the time) mechanical equipment. At the first general meeting of shareholders held when the company was established, Dr. Inokuty was appointed as Advisor and Issey as Senior Managing Director. It was not necessary for the selection of Advisor to be taken to the general meeting of shareholders, but it was decided to do so since Issay considered that Dr. Inokuty’s appointment as Advisor was of great importance.

In order to establish a stock company and a modern plant, Issey believed it was necessary to observe the situations overseas, so he visited America, the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, and Germany during the year before establishment. One result of the knowledge he gained during his travels was the name of the company. In order to expand its range of products beyond Dr. Inokuty’s inventions, the company took its name from Ebara-gun, the location of its new plant, and made a new start as EBARA Corporation.

Osaki Plant

Aerial photograph of the Osaki Plant

07

Contribution to a sustainable society since establishment

Pumps produced by EBARA played an important role in responding to the Great Kanto Earthquake which occurred in 1923. At that time, Tokyo had only one water supply location, the Yodobashi Water Purification Plant. Water was delivered from Hamura, upstream of the Tama River, to Yodobashi. However, two years before the Great Kanto Earthquake, another major earthquake occurred which caused collapses in several locations and cut off the water supply to Tokyo. Issey felt a great sense of danger because the water supply that protected the lives of Tokyo’s residents, numbered about 2 million then, depended on only a single waterway. He realized that if the supply of water were to be cut off by an earthquake, fires would occur. After fires, there would be outbreaks of disease and public safety would deteriorate even further.

Issey explained the necessity of backup equipment to the mayor and other related parties, and offered to donate pumps as well. Hence, decisions were made to install reserve pumps in Tokyo. In 1921, eight pumps were installed with a plan to use them to deliver water through the channels of the former Kanda Water Purification Plant to Tsunohazu in Shinjuku. When the Great Kanto Earthquake struck two years later, Hamura’s waterway collapsed and the city’s water supply was completely shut down. Issey dispatched several engineers to operate the reserve pumps that had been installed two years earlier and they began pumping water. As a result, water supplies were started on the following afternoon, successfully preventing the spread of fires and disease. This quick response was widely reported both in Japan and overseas, and the Japanese water industry was highly praised.

In such ways, EBARA has contributed to the maintenance and improvement of society and the global environment since its initial establishment, by providing elements of essential social infrastructure throughout the world to support industries and lifestyles. In 2020, EBARA formulated the “E-Vision 2030“ long-term vision looking 10 years ahead to the year 2030. E-Vision 2030 designates five material issues that EBARA will solve. One of them is “contribute to the creation of a sustainable society,” its origins date back to the time of our founding. The essence continues to live on in our company even today.