I’ve come across one of the best organized archives of old Sony stereo equipment that also has interesting items related to the company – the website is called The Vintage Knob. TVK has some amazing pictures, including those of Sony’s past. The picture above, taken in 1946, is of the first few engineers in the Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo factory – Sony’s previous company name.
From TVK – “1951 – The four-hundred and eighty-three Sony employees. Sony then still was Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo. Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita are fronting. Morita is holding a TR radio – and a bit of an attitude. Iwama, Sony’s original engineer with Ibuka, with clear overalls, is just behind Morita.”
Kazuo Iwama was a physicist at the Earthquake Research Institute of Tokyo University before he joining Akio Morita, Masaru Ibuka and Akira Higuchi in June 1946 as part of Totsuko. Iwama became Morita’s brother-in-law and celebrated his wedding ceremony soon after Totsuko was established, with Ibuka acting as the “Nakodo” or intermediary. His efforts were particularly significant in Sony’s commercial development of transistor technology. At the height of his career, he served as Sony’s president from 1976 until his death in 1982.
From TVK – “Masaru Ibuka, Sony’s founder, checking a portable TVs production line, circa 1963.”
In 1946 Ibuka and Akio Morita co-founded Sony Corporation, originally named Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation (prior to 1958). Ibuka was instrumental in securing the licensing of transistor technology to Sony from Bell Labs in the 1950s, thus making Sony one of the first companies to apply transistor technology to non-military uses. Ibuka served as president of Sony from 1950 to 1971, and then served as chairman of Sony between 1971 and 1976. Ibuka left Sony in 1976, but maintained close ties as an advisor until his death in 1997 of a heart failure.
