The company is established by Kazuchika Okura under the name of TOYO TOKI CO., Ltd., which is later renamed to TOTO. Five years previously, in 1912, Okura had set up a laboratory to develop the kind of sanitary ceramics that had become common in Europe and America. (Ironically, considering how sophisticated Japan’s bathroom culture is today, wooden toilet bowls were still prevalent and there was no sewage system.) With its first sales, Okura’s company begins challenging accepted notions of cleanliness, something that TOTO continues to do today.
