1954: Japan imports its first mass-production tufting machine from America (Suminoe)
Research finding · not yet checked at the source
- Date
- 1954
- Collection
- Tuft the World research brief: The Non-English Record
- Publisher
- SUMINOE Co., Ltd. (formerly Suminoe Textile), corporate history page suminoe.co.jp/company/history/
- Themes
- Global diffusion of tufting
Cite this source
Research notes
NEW DETAIL: Ōsumi's J-Stage paper (part 5) reportedly says Suminoe imported a used narrow-width tufting machine in 1952 for trials, and a broadloom machine from the US firm Super Tufter (スーパー・タフター社) in 1957 for Tufton. Read from OCR snippets; check the PDF. If right, Japan's first tufting machine is 1952, and the maker is named. Underlying source: Suminoe's 2013 centenary volume 『住江物語り』. Distinguish: 1954 machine imported · 1956 commercial tufted production begins · 1957 Tufton launched. Citation check (Oct 2026, from search results; pages not opened): partly confirmed. Suminoe's own history supports '1954, first in Japan, tufting carpet machine imported from America', but the exact quote was seen only paraphrased. Fix sourceUrl to /company/history/ (not the homepage). The caveat 'maker not named anywhere' is CONTRADICTED. Ōsumi Tadashi, フロアカバリング材発達史(5) (J-Stage), reportedly says Suminoe imported a USED NARROW-width machine in 1952 for trials. It also says full production began in 1957 with a broadloom machine from the US firm Super Tufter (スーパー・タフター社), sold as Tufton. (Read from an OCR'd snippet; check the PDF.) The yuho (securities report) says mass sales began Feb 1957. The 'At a glance' IR page says household carpet sales began in 1956. Source: 沿革 (Company history) – SUMINOE株式会社 (formerly 住江織物). Found at: https://suminoe.co.jp/company/history/ Also: https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/japaninteriorsociety/11/0/11_103/_pdf/-char/ja · https://suminoe.co.jp/uploads/2024/08/20240829_202405_yuho.pdf · https://suminoe.co.jp/ir/investor/glance/ · https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/SUMINOE