Where did the Subaru logo originate?

 

Subaru is the Japanese name of the pleiades constellation. The stars used to look more like the constellation, but now they look a little bit different.

 

Origin of Subaru

The first president of Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. (FHI), Kenji Kita, had some definite opinions on the subject of automobiles. "If you're going to build a car, build a full-fledged car." "Japanese cars should have Japanese names." Mr. Kita was ardent about producing passenger cars and was the most passionate of all about the 1954 prototype of the Company's first passenger car, the P-1.

Mr. Kita canvassed the Company for suggestions about naming the P-1, but none of the proposals were appealing. In the end, Mr. Kita gave the car a beautiful Japanese name that he had been quietly cherishing in his heart --- Subaru.

Subaru is the name of a star cluster in the Taurus constellation. Six of its stars are visible to the naked eye, but about 250 bluish stars can be seen if one uses a telescope.

In the West the cluster is called Pleiades, in China, Mao, and in Japan, Subaru ("to govern" or gather together"). In Japan, it also goes by the name Mutsuraboshi ("Six Stars"), under which title it appears frequently in very old Japanese documents such as Kojiki and Manyosyu and literature such as Makura-no-soshi. Clearly, this is one of the clusters much loved by the Japanese from ancient times. Interestingly enough, FHI was created by the merger of six companies, so you can see what a truly evocative name Subaru is.

 

Nice history lesson

 

Its good to know IMO

 

My reply was from Subaru Global

 

I can tell you as a Japanese speaker that this definition is unfortunately incorrect. Subaru is the Japanese name for the constellation Pleiades, which is made of 6 stars visible to the naked eye (but actually is made up of hundreds of different stars visible with a telescope). Hence, the Subaru logo has 6 stars and Fuji Heavy Industries is divided into 6 compaines, Subaru being one of them

 

http://www.wsanford.com/~wsanford/ex...in_subaru.html

^this says both...

 

actually the word subaru means seven sisters, in the constellation there are seven stars there are six on the badge the whole badge itself is the oldest sister repsresenting protection for the other six.

from my astronomy teacher keith waxman one of the most prominent astronomers in the world, hence why only six is visible to the naked eye

 

your professor is wrong. I too am a native japanese speaker, and pleiades is in reference to the seven sisters. http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=Pleiades

Subaru refers to the same cluster known in english as the pleiades, but does not directly mean "seven sisters".

 

oh i didnt mean it exactly that way, lol i was confused, i meant it didnt mean 6 sisters though, that was my point

i was half right u cant see one of them

 

IIRC, the Pleiades constellation is representative of seven mythical sisters, much like other constellations are based on Greek mythology. Don't quote me on this though