Isuzu Logo: Fifty Bells From a Sacred River

Isuzu began in 1916 as a plan at a Tokyo shipyard, and its name comes from the Isuzu River, which flows through the Inner Shrine at Ise.

Country: Japan
Active: Since 1916
Website: Official website ↗

A shipyard, a British licence and a sacred river

Isuzu’s story starts at a shipyard. In 1916 Tokyo Ishikawajima Shipbuilding and Engineering and Tokyo Gas and Electric Industrial began making plans to build automobiles. Isuzu still counts 1916 as its founding year.

The shipbuilders didn’t start from a blank page. In November 1918 they signed a technical tie-up with Wolseley Motors of England, and in December 1922 they completed the first Wolseley built in Japan, a model A-9. By 1928 the cars had a Japanese name of their own: Sumida. The British agreement had already ended in 1927.

Then came a string of mergers and new names. The car business was spun off in 1929 as Ishikawajima Automotive Works, merged with DAT Automobile Manufacturing in 1933 and became Automobile Industries Co. In April 1937 Tokyo Automobile Industries was established, and Isuzu calls it the direct predecessor of today’s company. One more twist: in 1942 its Hino Works was split off and grew into Hino Motors.

Fifty bells on a truck

The name arrived before the company had it. In 1934 a truck built to the standards of Japan’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry was named ISUZU. It came from the Isuzu River, which flows through the grounds of the Inner Shrine at Ise, one of the most sacred places in Japan. Written in kanji, 五十鈴, the name reads as “fifty bells”.

For fifteen years Isuzu was a product name. In July 1949 the company finally took it too and became Isuzu Motors Limited, so that, as Motor Fan puts it, the trademark and the company name were unified.

Ripples, pillars and a red wordmark

The river didn’t only give its name. According to accounts of the exhibits at Isuzu Plaza, the company’s own museum, the first Isuzu emblem used the ripples spreading on the Isuzu River as its motif. Motor Fan describes the old company badge as the word いすゞ in traditional lettering, surrounded by twelve ripples. The number twelve, it adds, had no special meaning beyond being a basic number, like the twelve signs of the zodiac.

In September 1974 Isuzu adopted a new corporate logo. The timing was no accident. In 1971 Isuzu had signed a full alliance with General Motors, and according to Motor Fan the new mark expressed a resolve to grow from Japan’s Isuzu into the world’s ISUZU. Its two pillars carried two ideas: an ISUZU that grows together with its customers, and an ISUZU that grows in harmony with society. A popular reading says the pillars are also a stylised い, the first character of いすゞ, but that doesn’t appear in the explanation Motor Fan gives.

Today’s badge is simpler still: the word ISUZU in red capital letters. Motor Fan says the plain wordmark keeps the same idea alive, a company that wants to grow alongside society.

Why Isuzu is red

According to Motor Fan, Isuzu’s corporate red takes the blazing flames of the sun as its theme and stands for the passion and forward drive of the people who work there. Isuzu Vietnam tells a similar story. It describes the logo as red on a white background, with ISUZU RED representing a passion for innovation and white representing integrity.

Video: ISUZU PLAZA virtual tour (English) (ISUZU / いすゞ自動車)

Trucks first, cars along the way

Isuzu’s heart has always been trucks, buses and diesel engines. Passenger cars came and went, and some of them were memorable.

Landmark Isuzus, decade by decade

1922: Wolseley A-9. The first Wolseley produced in Japan, completed by Tokyo Ishikawajima in December 1922.
1936: DA4 and DA6 engines. Japan’s first air-cooled diesel engines, completed in March 1936.
1959: Elf. The TL 2-ton truck that started the long-running N-Series/Elf line of light trucks.
1961: Bellel. A diesel passenger car that in 1963 became the first automobile to receive an award from the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers.
1972: KB. The 1-ton pickup that Isuzu began exporting to the United States as the Chevrolet LUV.
1997: VehiCROSS. An all-round sport utility vehicle that received the 1997/98 Japan Car of the Year Special Award.
2002: D-MAX. The pickup launched in Thailand after a full model change, a name Isuzu still uses today.

Isuzu has rarely worked alone. Beyond its long ties with General Motors, it opened a joint plant in Indiana with Fuji Heavy Industries, now Subaru, sold models supplied by Honda and later researched fuel cell trucks with it, and in 2016 agreed to supply pickups to Mazda. For more on how badges like these come together, see how car logos are designed.

Frequently asked questions

What does the name Isuzu mean?

It comes from the Isuzu River, which flows through the Inner Shrine at Ise in Mie Prefecture. Its kanji, 五十鈴, read as “fifty bells”. The name was first given to a truck in 1934 and became the company name in 1949.

What did the 1974 Isuzu logo stand for?

Isuzu adopted it in September 1974, a few years after its alliance with General Motors. According to Motor Fan, its two pillars stood for an ISUZU that grows with its customers and an ISUZU that grows in harmony with society.

When was Isuzu founded, 1916 or 1937?

Both dates are official. Isuzu gives 1916 as its founding, when Tokyo Ishikawajima Shipbuilding and Engineering began planning to build cars, and April 9, 1937 as its establishment, when its predecessor Tokyo Automobile Industries was set up.

Where is Isuzu based?

Isuzu Motors has its head office in Yokohama, Japan. It moved there in May 2022. Its Fujisawa Plant, next to the Isuzu Plaza museum, assembles trucks.