Classic & Vintage - Ishiwata - out of business

Hi,
I have two Fujis, which were made by Ishiwata; Ishiwata is no longer in business. The Japanese depression and other factors led to its demise. I seem to remember a website that said Ishiwata failed in the early 1990s. Does anyone out there have more definitive data or source? (other than Sheldon Brown)
Thanks in advance. :)

Perhaps caterham or T-Mar?

East Hill

I wasn't aware that Ishiwata made frames. It's my understanding that they made frame tubing. Are you sure that the Fujis were built by Ishiwata, and not by Fuji?

Ishiwata made the tubing for Fuji (their Valite line of tubing anyways), but Fuji made the frames. As far as I know anyways! Haven't seen anything about when the company went under, but if someone is able to pin down the date, I'll happily add it to velobase for future reference.

It was common for bike companies to brag about what type of tubing the frame was made from. That info could help influence a purchasing decision at the retail end.

Ishiwata Seisakusho Co., Ltd. was the company name. Only a couple mentions on the internet. The Equus site (http://www.equusbicycle.com/bike/index.html) has a couple catalogs. Per the catalogs it looks like they made tubing and fittings but didn't put them together.

maybe try using http://www.archive.org and see if you can find any info on their former website (if they had one).

Hi,
I have two Fujis, which were made by Ishiwata; Ishiwata is no longer in business. The Japanese depression and other factors led to its demise. I seem to remember a website that said Ishiwata failed in the early 1990s. Does anyone out there have more definitive data or source? (other than Sheldon Brown)
Thanks in advance. :)

I am not completely sure, but I think that some of Ishiwata´s tubing and technology went on together with some of the original people to form the Kaisei tubing company which today caters mostly to the Keirin builders. They use some of the same tubing labels as Ishiwata though.

The Ishiwata tubing company became Kaisei, which is still pretty common on handmade Japanese frames.

I wasn't aware that Ishiwata made frames. It's my understanding that they made frame tubing. Are you sure that the Fujis were built by Ishiwata, and not by Fuji?
You are correct - sloppy wording by me; I really knew better - similar to Reynolds, they made tube sets. :o
Somewhere I picked up the date 1992, but, I have not been able to reestablish the source.

Here's an article saying they shut down in 1993:

http://www.bikeschool.com/store/index.cgi?sp=kaisei