Saki’s hometown has been famous for its kapok production since ancient times. Many families regard weaving as a sideline business, and Saki’s family is no exception. Since childhood, Saki has watched his mother weave cloth hard every day after farming. "The efficiency of this kind of work is really low." After visiting factories and expositions in Tokyo and gaining a preliminary understanding of Western mechanical civilization, the filial Sakichi began to wonder, "Is it possible to make some improvements to the loom to reduce the hardship of my mother and other women like her mother?" From then on, he determined to invent a convenient and efficient power loom and embarked on an endless road of invention.
As the saying goes, "Everything is difficult at the beginning", but a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Sakichi understood that it was impossible to suddenly step into the realm of invention and creation without receiving any systematic knowledge and professional technical training, so he decided to start by improving the looms around him. However, Zoji's father believed that it was a fantasy for unlearned people to invent and create. His father's opposition and the lack of research funds made Zoji's road to invention full of thorns. Finally, in 1890, Sakichi successfully invented the Toyota-style human-powered loom and obtained his first patent. This kind of loom increases the weaving efficiency by 40% to 50%, greatly reduces the uneven parts of the fabric, and improves the quality of the fabric. However, although Sakichi was full of confidence in his work, the sales of this loom were not satisfactory. It seemed that only improving this process could not meet people's requirements. From then on, in order to further improve the working efficiency of the loom, Sakichi began to move towards the invention of the power loom.