Tokutaro Iizuka founded the Iizuka Sports Goods Manufacturing Co., Ltd.in 1928 in Nippori, Arakawa-ku, Tokyo. We don't know when they started producing ice axes, but according to the industry history issued in 1939, they were producing ice axes by that time. The brand name HOPE had been used for a long time, but around 1965 it became Hope Co., Ltd. with the company name. Hope went out of business in the 1980s.
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |
↑ 242: Iizuka Sporting Goods Manufacturing S. Alpinist