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Shinichiro Sakurai

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Shinichiro Sakurai
桜井 眞一郎
Born(1929-04-03)3 April 1929
Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture
Died17 January 2011(2011-01-17) (aged 81)
Setagaya, Tokyo
EducationYokohama National University
Engineering career
ProjectsNissan Skyline
AwardsJapan Automotive Hall of Fame (2005)

Shinichiro Sakurai (桜井 眞一郎, Sakurai Shin'ichirō; 1929–2011) was a Japanese engineer for Prince Motor Company and later Nissan. He continued to work in the automotive field up until his death.[1]

He is best known for the development of several generations of the Nissan Skyline, earning him the nickname "Father of the Skyline".

History

Sakurai was born in Totsuka-ku, Yokohama on April 3, 1929.

After graduating from Yokohama National University's Department of Mechanical Engineering in March of 1951[2] with the aim of working in the automotive industry, Sakurai worked for the Shimizu Corporation before he was given the opportunity to work for Tama Motor Company.He joined Tama (later Prince) as a chassis engineer[2] under Jiro Tanaka in October of 1952 (later working under Ryoichi Nakagawa in 1954),[3][4] and was heavily involved in the development of the first-generation Prince Skyline. In September of 1963, not long after Prince's merger with Nissan that August, Sakurai was promoted to manager of a design department within Nissan's Prince division.[2]

Sakurai also headed the Nissan MID4 sports car project. He was appointed President of Nissan subsudiary Autech in 1986 and President of S&S Engineering (later S&S Holdings) in 1994.[2][5] He served as a part-time lecturer at Osaka Sangyo University in 1989 and Tokai University in 1995.[5] He was inducted into the Japan Automotive Hall of Fame in May of 2005.[2]

Sakurai died of heart failure in Setagaya, Tokyo on January 17, 2011.[6][7]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Sakurai and the Skyline
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 The History and the Biography of Shinichiro Sakurai Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine (Japanese) - Japan Automotive Hall of Fame
  3. ↑ 『「プリンス」荻窪の思い出 II』荻友会編 私家版 1997年11月16日 "Prince - Memories of Ogikubo" Private press by Tekiyukai (former Prince engineers) Association, Nov. 16, 1997 (Japanese)
  4. ↑ 桜井眞一郎著『スカイラインとともに』神奈川新聞社 2006年4月　ISBN 978-4876453740 SAKURAI, Shinichiro "With the Skyline" Kanagawa Shimbun, April 2006 (Japanese)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 S&S Holdings Official Website "History of the founder" (Japanese) Archived 2014-08-14 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ↑ 桜井真一郎氏死去　元「スカイライン」開発責任者 Archived 2011-01-23 at the Wayback Machine Kyodo News January 20, 2011 (Japanese)
  7. ↑ Shinichiro Sakurai, Father of the Skyline, 1929-2011 japanesenostalgiccar.com January 23, 2011
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