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To earn the new currency, Ibuka designed an electrically heated cushion aimed at consumers for the winter months. A thin nichrome wire grid was inserted between two sheets of reinforced paper inside a leather and cloth upholstered cushion. It was rather unsafe because it had no thermostat or fire retardant.
In fact, Ibuka and his colleagues would not go so far as to tarnish Totsuko's name, so they sold it instead under the fictitious "Ginza Nessuru Shokai" (Ginza Heating Company) name. Since there were shortages of almost everything at the time, the cushion sold like "hot cakes".
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Electrically heated cushion.
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As the company earned the new yen with this business, employees' families were paid with the new yen notes in return for sewing covers, hem stitching cords and doing other subcontracted work. However, increased sales meant increased complaints. The cushion was scorching blankets and futons. Naturally, Ibuka and his colleagues were worried about the possibility of fires, especially due to voltage increases at night
Shigeo Shima, who received one of the cushions from Ibuka, was happy with it during his first year of use. But in the second year, the nichrome wire inside the cushion snapped at the edge, causing sparks which ruined his Sunday-best trousers.
Taketoshi Kodama, a university and navy friend of Morita's who would later work for Totsuko, also received a cushion from Ibuka when he dropped by the company one day. As Kodama was just about to fold the cushion and leave, Ibuka cried, "Wait! Don't fold it!" Kodama then realized that he had received an unusual gift. However, Kodama had no problems with it, because unlike Shima, he never used it.
Totsuko was also making better quality products, like the record pickup designed by Nakatsuru. Although record pickups had been prohibited by the government during the war, companies were now free to explore this untested market. They had no problems procuring materials because there were many pieces of steel littered in the ruins of Tokyo. Such steel needed no annealing, which was a great help. In those days, precise measurements were impossible, so everything depended on the fine craftsmanship of Nakatsuru. As a result, Totsuko's record pickup acquired a good reputation for its excellent sound quality. Mass production under the "Clear Voice" name was soon started.
While production was going very well, Totsuko faced a serious problem of relocating its office from Shirokiya. It was a matter of life-or-death to find a new base for its sales activities. Hisao Yuda, Kazuo Iwama's uncle, came to Totsuko's rescue at the last minute, saying, "If you're having such a hard time, then you can use my building."That very day Totsuko's wall partitions were torn down around them as Shirokiya made way for a dance hall to be used by the Occupation Forces. As the Totsuko people busily prepared for the move, the partitions came down. People queuing up to apply for jobs with Shirokiya watched them from the outside. It soon began to rain, making Totsuko's workers look quite miserable.
Ibuka and his colleagues were very happy because they were moving to Ginza. Yuda had offered them space in the Tokuya Building, near what is now the Mitsui Urban Hotel. It was a small building of only about 10 tsubo (approximately 60 square feet) in land area.
Kazuo Iwama was a physicist at the Earthquake Research Institute of Tokyo University before he joined Totsuko. Iwama and Morita had been good neighbors in the Shirakabe district of Nagoya, and Iwama had been engaged to marry Morita's younger sister since the war. Their marriage had been postponed because of the confusion and dislocation caused by the war. They celebrated their wedding ceremony soon after Totsuko was established, with Ibuka acting as the Nakodo or go-between. On June 1, Iwama joined the company, thanks to Morita's earnest persuasion.
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