K<\/span>enichi<\/strong> Yamamoto, who led the engineering team that produced a commercially viable rotary engine at the company now known as Mazda Motor Company and later became its president and chairman, died on Dec. 20 in Kanagawa Prefecture, near Tokyo. He was 95.<\/span><\/p>\n His death was confirmed by Mazda, which was called Toyo Kogyo until 1984.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/div><\/span><\/p>\n Imagine your\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>Ad<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0placed\u00a0here<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/div><\/span><\/p>\n Mr. Yamamoto, a slim and intense mechanical engineer, began his career working in a Toyo Kogyo factory after World War II, but he soon shifted to engine design, which accelerated his rise in management.<\/span><\/p>\n Around 1961, Toyo Kogyo\u2019s president asked Mr. Yamamoto to supervise a group of engineers who were trying to perfect the rotary engine that had been invented by a German engineer, Felix Wankel. With few moving parts, the rotary was a compact alternative to conventional engines, with their reciprocating pistons, connecting rods and crankshafts.<\/span><\/p>\n The rotary represented opportunity and risk for Toyo Kogyo. Like other small Japanese automobile manufacturers, the company was under pressure from the country\u2019s powerful Ministry of International Trade and Industry to merge with larger companies to increase their overseas competitiveness. If the rotary engine succeeded, it would allow Toyo Kogyo to maintain its independence.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe had to show we were different; we had to show our distinctiveness,\u201d\u00a0Mr. Yamamoto told The New York Times in 1985<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n His team produced a successful engine: The prototype of a stylish rotary-powered coupe called the Cosmo made its debut at the Tokyo Motor Show in 1963. Mr. Yamamoto patiently talked about the Cosmo to visitors and then drove the car across Japan with Toyo Kogyo\u2019s president over two weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis was no mere publicity stunt,\u201d\u00a0Automotive News wrote in 1995<\/a>. \u201cToyo Kogyo\u2019s existence was at stake.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Rotary engines were mass produced and featured in the company\u2019s sporty compacts, but they had a significant flaw: poor fuel economy, which became a liability when energy crises struck in the early 1970s. Sales dropped, and the company was close to bankruptcy.<\/span><\/p>\n In 1974, Mr. Yamamoto became the head of Toyo Kogyo\u2019s project to find fuel-saving innovations; he was adamant that the company could not abandon a breakthrough technology that set it apart from its competitors.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt would have announced to the world that what we had started doing was not good,\u201d he told The Times. \u201cAnd then we wouldn\u2019t have been able to succeed at anything \u2014 even just selling the piston engine.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The engine overhaul worked. The engine\u2019s fuel economy rose significantly. And sales of the rotary-powered Mazda RX-7 model soared.<\/span><\/p>\n But while the rotary engines remained the hallmark of the company\u2019s innovation, the fuel shocks of the 1970s led it to rely increasingly on piston-engine vehicles, like the GLC.<\/span><\/p>\n Mr. Yamamoto was born in Japan on Sept. 16, 1922, in Kumamoto Prefecture, on the southwestern island of Kyushu, and later moved with his family to Hiroshima, where Mazda has long had its headquarters. He graduated with a mechanical engineering degree from what was then called Tokyo Imperial University (now the University of Tokyo) and served in the Japanese Navy.<\/span><\/p>\n The detonation of the first atomic bomb by the United States over Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, killed Mr. Yamamoto\u2019s sister and destroyed the family\u2019s home. But his parents were still alive. He returned to Hiroshima and was hired by Toyo Kogyo to work at a plant outside the city that made transmissions for its three-wheeled trucks.<\/span><\/p>\n It was grimy work, but it allowed him to explore the engineering challenges of making transmissions. One day, he found blueprints of the transmissions \u201cand he began to check their tolerances, acting as his own quality control,\u201d according to the website\u00a0Japanese Nosta<\/a>lg<\/a>ic Car<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n His diligence and inquisitiveness placed him on a path to management.<\/span><\/p>\n Don Sherman, a longtime automotive journalist, remembered Mr. Yamamoto as warm and candid. \u201cHe\u2019d greet you like a long-lost friend,\u201d he said in a phone interview. \u201cAnd he\u2019d ask you basic questions, like: \u2018What should Mazda do? Where should Mazda go?\u2019 \u201d<\/span><\/p>\n As head of research and development,\u00a0Mr. Yamamoto listened to a suggestion in 1978 from Bob Hall, who was then working for Autoweek magazine<\/a>, that the company build an inexpensive two-seat roadster. Mr. Hall made his pitch, but the idea did not advance for three years until he was working for Mazda as a product planner in Southern California and Mr. Yamamoto saw him on a visit there.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWith a glimmer in his eye,\u201d\u00a0Mr. Hall said in a 2005 article in Automobile magazine<\/a>, \u201che turned and said, \u2018Hey Bob, what about your lightweight sports car? Why don\u2019t you study that!\u2019 \u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In 1985, after Mr. Yamamoto became president, he recommended that the company\u2019s board approve production of the car: the MX-5 Miata, which proved to be immensely popular.<\/p>\n One of Mr. Yamamoto\u2019s other priorities as president was to expand Mazda\u2019s presence in the United States by building an assembly plant in Flat Rock, Mich.\u00a0At the groundbreaking, in 1985,<\/a>\u00a0he acknowledged the difficulty of bringing a Japanese production system to the Midwest.<\/p>\n \u201cWe recognized that the guiding principles to which we have long subscribed in operating our company will be put to a real test here at Flat Rock,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The factory became a symbol of Mazda\u2019s continuing partnership with the Ford Motor Company, which bought 50 percent of the plant in 1992, augmenting its existing 25 percent stake in Mazda.<\/p>\n Mr. Yamamoto stepped down that year after five years as chairman. Mazda\u2019s last mass-produced rotary-engine car was the 2012 RX-8.<\/p>\n For more Logistics News,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Follow us on TWITTER <\/strong><\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>Follow us on FACEBOOK<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Information on his survivors was not immediately available.<\/p>\n In 2003, Mr. Yamamoto reminisced about pioneering the rotary engine, which went on to power 1.8 million Mazda vehicles.<\/p>\n \u201cI am proud to be an engineer,\u201d\u00a0he wrote, adding that he was happy to have helped develop an engine<\/a>\u00a0that \u201csymbolized the magnificent union of technology and romance that took place in the latter half of the century.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2017\/12\/30\/arts\/30yamamoto-obit2\/30yamamoto-obit2-popup.jpg\")
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