While helping with the family business, “Shoda Shoyu” (Shoda Soy Sauce), Teiichiro invites Dr. Kinshiro Tsuchiko, a famous economist and his former teacher from the Tokyo Higher Commercial School （now Hitotsubashi University） to Tatebayashi. Hearing about the potential future of flour milling, Teiichiro decides to enter the mechanized flour milling business and establishes Tatebayashi Flour Milling in 1900. Then, in 1913 (the second year of the Taisho era), Teichiro embarks on a six-month investigative research tour of the US and several European countries for a first-hand appraisal of the situation in the most advanced flour milling countries in the world.
This investigative research tour soon bears fruit, with Teiichiro formulating a plan to construct a large-scale mill on the waterfront to procure wheat for processing.
Route of inspection tour through the United States and Europe (1913)
The Tsurumi Plant under construction (1925)
Provided by Shimizu Corporation
With a resolve likened by the Japanese to the courage required to take a leap of faith from the legendary heights of Kyoto’s Kiyomizudera, Teiichiro completes the construction of the Tsurumi Plant in 1926.
The Tsurumi Plant under construction (1925)
Provided by Shimizu Corporation
Far more than most would expect or contemplate, Teiichiro put his heart and soul into hiring and training employees. In order to hire the best employees, Teiichiro directly interviewed graduates himself, immediately deciding whether they were suitable or not. Teiichiro would often say that in order to bring together and utilize a wide range of human resources, one should not rely on academic cliques (cliquism).