Mazda engineers and designers are committed to doing things the Mazda way, innovating and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible and obsessing over every last detail, from the engine to the color of the driver’s seat in each and every car.

For example, Ryo Yanagisawa and his team of innovative designers had to apply Mazda’s KODO design language to a new small car. And so the boundary-breaking Hazumi concept car was born.
“All designers and modelers on the team are artists, and have the potential to create art. Car design has two different aspects: product and art, and I believe art is something that comes from within. To create real beauty, you need to reflect, to meditate,” explains Yanagisawa.

Expert clay modeler Yutaka Sukegawa is one of those artists, and he effectively spends his life sculpting. He was one of the people asked to create shapes that encapsulated the spirit of KODO. The next challenge was to apply those shapes to the Hazumi’s compact dimensions. “For Hazumi, the liveliness and solid feel of the small car were condensed to create a sense of tension on the frames and surfaces – my inspiration was an athlete’s pose at a crouch start.

“The unique surface quality of forged metals and the lean form mimic an athlete’s muscles with the sense of depth. From the beginning, I aimed to enhance the value of the vehicle from merely being a form of transportation to something that comes close to a piece of moving art.”