Tokai Means?

[Sigmania]

For some time I have wondered why I come across passages in catalogs that seem to use Tokai as an adjective.

The most blatant example is the phrase "Extra Tokai". I have always wondered how you can have extra of a brand name.

Recently I came across this passage in translating a catalog that is the clearest explanation yet of what it may mean when they use the word Tokai in this way.

From the 1987 Vol 13 catalog:

“When speaking of ST, it is a product with such confidence that it is often referred to as Tokai.”

So Tokai in some ways implies confidence? OK, I can accept that.

 

[Sigmania]

1982/83 ad

Fighting Tokai
The 11th Dynamic Campaign
Great Japanese Hero
Tokai Gakki Co. Ltd

 

[Sigmania]

1980s - 1982-83 Extra Tokai launch ad

 

[Sigmania]

It just struck me that Tokai has a persona of being a little guy standing up to big brutes in the industry.

If you look at this ad campaign, "Fighting Tokai, The Great Japanese Hero", this comes in the wake of the lawsuit in the UK months earlier and the readjustments they had to make to stay alive.

Notice it also says Japanese, as in national identity in the face of outside threats.

 

[Sigmania]

More on the theme of being a fighter, from the Hard Puncher catalog in 1979.

 

[Sigmania]

So the character of the company is a sort of confidence and defiance in the face of long odds among giants in the industry.