Why may some Japanese speakers mistakenly refer to Mitutoyo as "Mitsutoyo"?

In this article, we will unravel the trivia surrounding this linguistic dilemma.

The origins of the Roman alphabet hold the key to the mystery

There are two types of romanization: the "Hepburn" system and the "Japanese" system.

Originally, romanization was invented by the Romans to write Latin in their own country, but in the late 1800s, efforts were made to spread this romanization to Japan. This resulted in the Hepburn system, which is based on English pronunciation, and in which the symbols "ツ" and "シ" are pronounced as "tsu" and "shi." Hepburn is the name of a person who was an advisor to the organization that was spreading the romanization.

Next is the Japanese style, which is the name given to a writing system devised by Japanese intellectuals in opposition to the Hepburn style. It was created by a Japanese person based on the Japanese 50 sounds, so "ツ" and "シ" were written as "tu" and "si". Incidentally, the Japanese style came to be called "くんれいしき" (Kunreishiki) after a cabinet order was issued in 1937 to unify the Hepburn and Japanese styles.

Differences between Hepburn and Japanese styles (one example)

	Hepburn Style	Japanese Style
つ	tsu	tu
し	shi	si
ち	chi	ti
じゃ	ja	zya

References: Atsushi Kayashima (ed.) (2012) "New horizons in Japanese writing" Kuroshio Publishing

"MITUTOYO" engraved on the first domestically produced micrometer

Remnants of the Japanese style that have been used since the company's founding

Let's go back to the corporate logo. Mitutoyo succeeded in domestically producing micrometers in 1936. The company's products are stamped with the Japanese-style representation of the company name, "Mitutoyo". This was likely largely due to the growing movement in Japan at the time to support the Japanese style. After the end of the war in 1945, the Hepburn system became more common in Japan, but the "tsu" in Mitutoyo is still pronounced "tu" rather than "tsu" today, a vestige of that era.

Mitutoyo's iconic gourd mark

The first Mitutoyo trademark was a Japanese-style design mark with a gourd motif. It was devised in 1936 during the time of the Mitutoyo Manufacturing Company. Since the "Toyo" in Mitutoyo makes a Japanese person think of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the motif was the Sennari gourd - Hideyoshi's horse crest.

Until the current corporate logo was decided upon as the sole trademark in 1987, this gourd mark (more precisely, a mark of three gourds surrounded by a circle) was used alongside the company's logo and is currently used as the company crest on the company building, flag, etc.

1936

1938

1960

1975

1987

What about the lines in the "M" and "y" in our logo?

Finally, here's one more fun fact about our logo. Can you see that the "M" and "y" in "Mitutoyo" have an upward line in the upper right?

This line creates a sharp accent in the corporate logo and represents the high level of precision and technology that the company has as a manufacturer of precision measuring instruments.