Honda's lifestyle and last days
Yet there was more than even that to Honda. He and his wife Sachi both held private pilot's licences, he was still skiing, hang-gliding and ballooning at 77, and he was a highly accomplished artist. And he was a man of rare understanding. He had never wanted to follow his father in the smithy or the bicycle shop, and he and Fujisawa made a pact never to force their own sons to join the company. Soichiro Honda died in Tokyo's Juntendo Hospital on August 5 1991, aged 84 years and eight months.