On May the 5th 1959 the established patterns of competition at the IOM were about to be broken forever by the arrival of a small team of enthusiastic young men from the other side of the globe in the form of the first Honda team.

Read Don's account of his visit to the memorial erected in the honour of Kunihiko Akiyama.





Read the full story by clicking on this link.

Well Don I have to thank you for that insight and very moving story. Your efforts have enlightened us to an element of TT history and of the Honda involvement that otherwise may have gone unheard of. A worthy tribute and as I say, a very moving story.

A humbling account of a life unfulfilled, but not un-noticed thanks to yourself

Thanks.

crazy blanket Wrote:thank you for that insight and very moving story.

Hear, hear!

These untold TT related stories are so very, very important. Thanks Don.

Don, you continue to find the important things in life.

Thank you.

Yep Larry your right, that's what the the true spirit of the TT (and the (MGP} is about.

Not Bushy's Beer tent, Bands, Black tie or Blue Blazer dinners and BS spin.

Great article Don makes you proud to have neen part of it

Yes a great story Don, that must have been a fabulous trip.

Here's a little more background to Hondas first race at the TT.

The nine people, project leader Kiyoshi Kawashima, the five riders and three mechanics, who left Japan, arrived in the Isle of Man, for the first time, on May 5th 1959. They travelled, not as employees of Honda but as temporary workers of the Okura Trading Co. (an export company).

It was the culimination of Soichiro Honda's statement of intent to compete in the Isle of Man, some years earlier.

As it was still relatively close to the end of the second world war and Honda didn't have any exports at that time, the teams passports all indicated that they were temporary employees of Okura which enabled them to gain the relevant travel/exit visas and temporary export licences for the bikes. It also enabled them to obtain the necessary foreign currency they needed, to pay their way, as they were in the Isle of Man for well over a month.

Before they left, Soichiro, or "the Old Man" as he was known all Honda employees, even arranged instruction for the riders and mechanics on 'English table manners' as they were 'representing' Japan.

Bill Hunt, the American , the only rider not to finish the race, was fluent in Japanese also acted as interpreter for the team, and the first job they had to do, after they arrived in the Island 'for training', was to clean all the rust of their machines, which had been sea freighted from Japan. Both race bikes, and the recently launched Honda Benly road bikes which the riders used to learn the course before official practice began.

They also had to throw away the food that they had shipped with the machines, as it had all gone mouldy!

Strangely....I cannot find any reference to Kunihiko Akiyama in Honda's official history pages.

The ground breaking Honda Team in 1959 arriving at Mrs Armstrong's Nursery Hotel on the Isle of Man.
Yes Charlie you will very rarely find Akiyama's name mentioned on the English language websites but he should have been in that photo.

Thankyou Don,

I had never heard that story before.

A very moving tribute from his friends and his country.

Stella

When the Honda team arrived in the Island in 1959, A Japanese lady, Kay Karran went to see them at the Nursery Hotel, Onchan. Kay had married a Manxman at the end of the war. She used to invite the team back to her house where she cooked them their native dishes, to save them being homesick!
Kay still keeps contact with 'her riders' she befriended over the years, I meet her every TT week around the Grandstand area, still soaking up the TT atmosphere.

Don,

I must admit I did find it strange he didn't get a mention on Honda's own 'History of' site.

Many names are mentioned from 1954 when the Special Projects dept. was formed and the work they did, which changed the road racing map for ever, post 1959.

Engineers, project bosses, and riders, and lots of detail about the San Paolo, races.

Honda raced outside Japan at Interlagos, for the first time in their history, and riders actually carried their stripped down bikes as 'HAND LUGGAGE'. The sea freight charges were too expensive for the race department to pay out of their limited budget..

One of the riders crashed and injured himself in practice and didn't qualify for his start money. This left the team so short of funds they had to sell their machines locally in order to get home to Japan.