Shunsaku Tamiya, the man who led Japanese model building to excellence

Culturally, I've never considered myself a person attracted to Japan, but a company from that country managed to make me have a good time.

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I am referring to Tamiya Corporation, a company founded by Yoshio Tamiya (1905-1988) in 1946, under the name Tamiya Shoji & Co. in the city of Oshika. Initially, this company operated as a sawmill, but soon began to make wooden toys, which became its main business, until it became its only production line from 1953, due to its sales success.

In 1959, Tamiya began making plastic models, focusing on high quality work and elegant box designs by Japanese illustrator Shigeru Komatsuzaki (1915-2001).

Shunsaku Tamiya was born on December 19, 1934. In 1958, he joined what was then known as Tamiya Shoji Limited Partnership, his father's company. In 1977, he was appointed president of Tamiya Corporation, a position he held until 2024.

Shunsaku's work in obtaining the best miniatures is something worthy of admiration. In 1966, he began visiting military museums to take photographs to make his models more detailed. In those museums where photographs were not possible, Shunsaku and other members of the company would draw everything they could remember of what they had seen once the visit was over. Tamiya was the brand that popularized the 1:35 scale for military modeling, becoming world-famous for the quality of its products.

Tamiya's famous Twin Stars logo (the one on the left inscribed on a red square and the one on the right on a blue square) was commissioned by Shunsaku to his brother Masao, who was a Fine Arts student, in 1966. The company still uses it today for its symbolism: red represents passion and creativity, and blue represents precision and accuracy. Today it is the most famous logo in the modeling world.

During the 47 years he presided over the company founded by his father, Shunsaku made Tamiya a benchmark of excellence in model building, both static and radio-controlled. One of Shunsaku's greatest challenges during the Cold War was gaining access to Soviet tanks so he could make miniatures of them. He even visited the Soviet embassy in Tokyo to try to obtain information about these vehicles, without success. This caused him problems with the Japanese police, who placed him under surveillance. Finally, in Israel, he was able to obtain details about the T-34/85, thanks to a tank of this type captured during the Six-Day War and displayed in a museum.

In some cases, Tamiya collaborated with companies to make very realistic models of their vehicles, but the most striking case occurred in the 1970s when the Japanese firm bought a Porsche 911 to disassemble it and get to know it in detail, having to later ask a dealer of the German automobile company for help to reassemble it, since they did not know how to do it.

Shunsaku Tamiya was a great person who dedicated his life to model building and, above all, to trying to make many children happy with the products he sold. This is one of his main motivations and what made Tamiya so respected all over the world today. I was one of those children who grew up building Tamiya models, my favorite brand in the modeling world. That's why I was saddened last night to learn that Shunsaku Tamiya passed away this Tuesday, July 22, at the age of 90. His position at the head of the company is now in the hands of Nobuhiro Tamiya, born in 1986. Thank you very much, Mr. Shunsaku, for all the good times I've had with your products. Rest in peace.

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Main photo: Tamiya.com.