Spent the afternoon with the fascinating Michio Kimura, who used to be the head engineer for Sekine Canada, as well as the assistant to the President of Sekine Canada. He had some very interesting things to say about the original Mr. Sekine, from Arakawa, Japan.
He was a very humble man, and it was said of him that “The lower he bowed, the more money he made.” He was a very detail and quality-focused businessman, and would regularly send raw materials back to suppliers if it didn’t meet his approval. Arakawa was a very working class, industrial neighbourhood, and the original Sekine’s were made so that Japanese without cars, could still get to and from work quickly, and transport what they needed easily. Mr. Kimura said that the early Sekine’s often had very large baskets or bins attached.
Another bicycle engineer who lived at Oo-za-we-kwun was Koishiro Seki. He moved to Vancouver. I did a brief Google search and found references to as late as 2012 but nothing after that. I didn’t find him on Canada411.
I believe Koishiro was interviewed in this zine by a Vancouver Sekine bike fan: http://thesekineproject.blogspot.ca/p/buy-sekine-zine.html