Above: Bridgestone's keystone mark was a ubiquitous fixture on tyre and bicycle shops in neighborhoods throughout Japan. The company adopted its present logo mark in 1984.

Hard work and an emphasis on quality earned the trust of customers and powered Bridgestone's postwar resurgence in the 1950s.
Craftsmen pose with their pioneering product in 1930 at Ishibashi's plant in Kurume, Japan.
Shojiro Ishibashi had a vision. He dreamed of supplying his nation's new automobile industry with tyres developed and manufactured with Japanese capital and Japanese expertise. Ishibashi, who was born on the southerly island of Kyushu in 1889, was inventive by nature. At the age of 18, he refocused the family business on footwear. He developed rubberized footwear to replace straw sandals on the feet of Japanese workers. His invention was phenomenally successful, and even bigger things lay ahead for the young entrepreneur.