window.googletag = window.googletag || {cmd: []}; googletag.cmd = googletag.cmd || []; googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.defineSlot('/22557728108/my_article_breadcrumb_above_pc', [ 728, 90 ], 'div-gpt-ad-1685524554756-0').addService(googletag.pubads()); googletag.pubads().enableSingleRequest(); googletag.pubads().collapseEmptyDivs(); googletag.enableServices(); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1685524554756-0'); });

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story

Hans · Nov 9, 2019 01:08 AM

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story 01

Mugen is synonymous with Honda, but not quite in the same way Gazoo Racing is with Toyota or STi is with Subaru. This is despite the fact that Mugen has a much longer history – since 1973 - and is the only one who can boast of victories in Formula One (1999, Jordan-Honda).

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story 02

Damon Hill's Mugen-Honda Jordan (1998 season)

For many people in this part of the world, their first encounter with the Mugen brand is on some tacky stickers on a badly modified Honda, partly because Mugen is independent from Honda, which also means that it doesn't benefit from Honda's worldwide marketing reach. 

But this doesn’t appear to trouble Mugen, which is odd but understandable once you get to know Mugen’s philosophy, as well as that of its founder Hirotoshi Honda – the only child of Honda Motor’s founder Soichiro Honda.

window.googletag = window.googletag || {cmd: []}; googletag.cmd = googletag.cmd || []; googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.defineSlot('/22557728108/my_article_fourthp_under_pc', [ 728, 90 ], 'div-gpt-ad-1685525140735-0').addService(googletag.pubads()); googletag.pubads().enableSingleRequest(); googletag.pubads().collapseEmptyDivs(); googletag.enableServices(); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1685525140735-0'); });

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story 01

Mugen's head office in Asaka, Saitama Prefecture

Despite being the scion of one of Japan’s most successful companies, Hirotoshi is very contented with living a quiet life. He has no grandiose plans of building a business empire and is very comfortable pursuing his interest in motorsports behind his late father’s shadow, who had never intended for him to take over his company anyway.

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story 02

Hirotoshi’s old man Soichiro Honda was a man far ahead of his time. He doesn’t believe in family dynasties and had never set out to build one. In fact, he did mention that naming his company after his family name was probably a mistake. 

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story 03

Hirotoshi's father Soichiro Honda founded Honda Motor Co.

Since Hirotoshi was born, Soichiro had always encourage his son to pursue his own path rather than join Honda. Being a free spirit person himself, Soichiro didn’t want to impose his will on his son. He had seen enough businesses failed under the founder’s children or grandchildren.

More like a quiet geek that’s more comfortable in a garage than a pub, Hirotoshi barely matches his late father’s flamboyant reputation and drinking habits, but shares the same passion in motorsports.

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story 04

Soichiro Honda (right) was more comfortable on the factory floor than the board room. Despite his title, his role was actually to head Honda R&D while his partner Takeo Fujisawa looked after the business

Contrary to popular culture, Soichiro Honda didn’t set out to establish Honda as an industrial giant. He was an engineer with very little interest in business, and merely wanted to build the best product.

Much of Honda’s commercial success was due to Takeo Fujisawa, his partner and investor, whose company Fujisawa Shokai (Trading) merged with Soichiro Honda’s Honda Kogyo (Industry) in 1949 to form Honda Motor Co.

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story 05

Soichiro Honda (left) in his white factory garb, with Takeo Fujisawa (right). It was a simple, honest partnership. Soichiro focused on what what he did best while Fujisawa grew the business on Soichiro's engineering genius

Although Mugen was founded in 1973, its history dates to 1964, when Hirotoshi’s father launched the Honda S600 sports car. The then 22-year old Hirotoshi immediately went about modifying his father’s S600.

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story 06

Honda S600

When not studying at the Nihon University’s College of Art, Hirotoshi hung out with Nobuhiko Kawamoto and Shoichiro Irimajiri, both young engineers at Honda R&D, who would later become CEO and President of Honda’s American operations respectively. They feared his father’s fiery temper and high standards of engineering, but loved talking about cars with the junior Honda.

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story 07

Many say Tetsu Izukawa's Prince Skyline GT's brave overtaking of a Porsche 904 during the '64 Suzuka GP sparked Japan's interest in motorsports 

The trio of car guys often hung out with Tetsu Ikuzawa, a college friend of Hirotoshi who had recently made a big name for himself at the 1964 Suzuka Grand Prix, for overtaking a Porsche 904 Carrera GTS and briefly held the lead for one lap, in a Prince GT – the car that would later birth the Nissan Skyline GT-R.

Ikuzawa’s personal car was a Honda S600, which his friends at Honda R&D loved modifying, often with smuggled out Honda R&D parts!

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story 08

The antics of Hirotoshi and his friends at Honda R&D were an open secret, but being the son of Soichiro has its perks - but even that had to come to a stop when it was found out by senior engineers, who spotted R&D parts on Ikuzawa’s car when it was sent in for regular servicing. The younglings were let off with a stern warning.

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story 09

Tetsu Izukawa before the start of the 1967 Nurburgring 500 km, with his Honda S800 that Hirotoshi helped build. Credit: Mai Izukawa

In 1967, Hirotoshi built his friend Ikuzawa a souped-up Honda S800 for the Nurburgring 500 km race in Germany, which took home the class win, at its first attempt.

Such was the origin of Mugen and its close association with Honda – informal and lacking in structure but yet intertwined.

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story 10

When Hirotoshi founded Mugen in 1973 with seed money from his father, its first product was the MF318 engine used for the Japanese Formula FJ1300 series. It was based on the Civic’s engine and proved to be successful. 

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story 11

Mugen's first race engine - MF318

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story 12

Mugen's debut in the Japanese Formula FJ1300 series, note the Mugen logo

Mugen’s subsequent business was building racing engines and parts for the Civic, which had an active one-make race series in Suzuka, before joining the Japan Touring Car Championship series.

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story 13

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story 14

The business continued to grow, venturing into F1 with some success, but pulled out every time Honda rejoins as an engine supplier.  

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story 15

Somewhere along the way Mugen encountered a rough path in 2003, when the company was found guilty of tax evasion and had to be shutdown.

The court would eventually clear Hirotoshi Honda of any wrongdoing, but it wasn't enough to save Mugen. Hiro-san was like his father, was not a businessman but unlike his father who had a trustworthy moneyman in the form of Takeo Fujisawa, Hirotoshi’s partner Norio Hirokawa, wasn’t an honest person.

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story 16

Mugen had to be restarted under a new company M-Tec Co. Ltd., thus explains the reason behind why the Mugen brand is owned by another company.

Today, M-TEC continues to work closely with Honda R&D. Despite being an independent entity, the computers of Mugen engineers at the company’s headquarters in Asaka, in the outskirts of Tokyo are linked to Honda Automotible R&D's centre at Wako, for easy sharing of confidential CATIA engineering files.

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story 17

At the rear of the company’s Asaka facility is an engine dyno room that has developed several F1 engines.

The Asaka facility also houses two autoclaves so it can produce ultra-lightweight carbon fibre components.

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story 18

Mugen’s own craftsmen and expert machinists are also able to produce race-ready, FIA-standard engine parts with extremely tight tolerances of up to 1/1000 mm.

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story 19

Today, Mugen is most active in the Japanese Super Formula series (formerly Formula Nippon) and the Super GT (NSX, GT 500 category). The Mugen HR-417E four-cylinder engine is used on both racing series.

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story 20

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story 21

Gold, red, and white are Mugen's colours. Gold for victory, red and white for Japan

At the lower grassroots level, Mugen supports Honda’s Fit 1.5 Challenge Cup one-make race in Japan, as well as the N-One Owner’s Cup.

It is also developing electric racing bikes for the Isle of Man TT.

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story 22

Hirotoshi Honda (right) with the Mugen Shinden electric superbike that competed in the Isle of Man TT

For Hirotoshi Honda, Mugen will always be a builder of racing cars and engines – some of it costing upwards of USD 500,000. Selling styling accessories for road cars is just a supplementary business. Thus explains his indifference on the lack of proper marketing of the Mugen brand to end users.

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story 23

Mugen is not BMW M or Mercedes-AMG, and harbours no ambitions of becoming one. Mugen is best understood as a racing team that also happens to sell car parts and accessories.

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story 24

Instead, think of Mugen as something between McLaren - a racing team which also makes full fledged road cars - and Williams - a racing team who doesn't make road cars but has a history of tinkering with some. 

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story 25

Kitted up Mugen demo cars (accessories only) parked behind the company's Asaka headquarters

Hirotoshi is quite satisfied with leaving Mugen as it is. He has since retired and no longer manages the day-to-day operations at Mugen. 

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story 26

Hirotoshi has since retired from Mugen but continues to serve as an inspirational figure

Every now and then, Mugen’s ‘Complete car business’ division will produce a limited number of road cars, all limited only to the Japanese market and sold via Honda dealers.

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story 27

The first was the legendary Mugen RR in 2007. Limited to just 300 units, it was an even more track-focused FD2 Civic Type R, with power upped to 240 PS and 218 Nm.

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story 28

Next came the Mugen RZ in 2012. Also limited to just 300 units, it’s basically a supercharged Honda CR-Z, with power upped to 156 PS and 185 Nm.

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story 29

The most recent was the Mugen RA, in 2016. It’s based on the Honda S660, and was aptly limited to 660 units. Since it’s a ‘kei’ car, and Japanese law limits its power output to just 64 PS, the engine remains unchanged but many tweaks were done to the chassis.

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story 30

Considering that Mugen have been introducing a new road car once every four or five years, perhaps there could be a successor to the Mugen RR within the next two years, probably as a final hurrah to send off the FK8 Civic Type R.

For now, there are only Mugen accessories to dress up the Civic Type R.

Mugen is founded by Mr. Honda’s only son Hirotoshi, and this is his story 31

By the way, the Mugen is often mispronounced outside of Japan. It should be pronounced as, ‘moo-gant,’ which means limitless in Japanese, not ‘miu-ghen.’

Hans

Head of Content

Over 15 years of experience in automotive, from product planning, to market research, to print and digital media. Garages a 6-cylinder manual RWD but buses to work.

window.googletag = window.googletag || {cmd: []}; googletag.cmd = googletag.cmd || []; googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.defineSlot('/22557728108/my_article_relatedmodel_above_pc', [ 728, 90 ], 'div-gpt-ad-1685525247138-0').addService(googletag.pubads()); googletag.pubads().enableSingleRequest(); googletag.pubads().collapseEmptyDivs(); googletag.enableServices(); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1685525247138-0'); });
window._taboola = window._taboola || []; _taboola.push({ mode: 'thumbnails-a-2x2-stream', container: 'taboola-below-article-thumbnails', placement: 'Below Article Thumbnails', target_type: 'mix' });

Hassle-free purchasing, get your next car fast!

2023 Honda Civic Type R

Upgrade

Add your car

Not trading-in?   Sell your car