K.Yairi | Claescaster

March 24, 2014

Kazuo Yairi

I just found out that Kazuo Yairi died earlier this month at the age of 81. As I mentioned before, I would love to one day afford a K.Yairi and big reason for that is the philosophy of Mr Yairi himself:

Good materials are hard to find so it’s better to make guitars through limited production by hand instead of mass production. Trees are very important “precious” things so we should make good use of them. Guitars made with “heart” are the best use of trees. Kazuo Yairi

Martin D-45 copy, 1976 K.Yairi YW-1000
The most beautiful Martin D-45 copies in the world, a 1976 K.Yairi YW-1000

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December 11, 2013

Japanese guitar catalogues

I’ve recently come across I pretty good source for old catalogue scans for Japan made acoustic guitars. It’s called oldguitar and has about 50 different Japanese guitar brands represented, some brands has more scans than others and most of them are in Japanese but it still pretty nice to see your guitars in old catalogues. Unfortunately I only managed to find my Morris W-40, K. Yairi TG-40 and Suzuki Three-S F-120, my Morris WL-35 and Kiso Suzuki WE-150 seems a bit harder to track down.

Morris W-40 Made in Japan by Terada 1973

Morris W-40 in the Morris catalogue for Japan 1975

K. Yairi TG-40 Made in Japan 1977

Yairi TG-40 in a Japan Catalogue from the late 1970’s

Suzuki Three-S F-120 Made in Japan 1976

Suzuki Three-S F-120 in the Suzuki Three-S catalogue for USA 1979

Kiso Suzuki WE-150 Made in Japan 1970’s

My Kiso Suzuki WE-150 seems to be a mix of the W-150 and then WH-200 in this catalogue from Japan 1976

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October 31, 2013

K. Yairi

K.Yairi YW-1000
The most beautiful Martin D-45 copies in the world, a 1976 K. Yairi YW-1000

I’m extremely happy with the two Morris I have and think that Terada is one of the better acoustic guitar builders in Japan. Having said that, I think everyone that is in to Japanese acoustics dream of owning a K. Yairi, at least I do. Unfortunately they are a bit too expensive for me, I’m sure they are worth it but you can get an old Martin, Gibson or Guild for that money. One thing that I really like with Yairi is that they use the year of the Emperor of Japan to determine the production year of their instruments, how awesome is that. See the list below.

http://youtu.be/ky56o9gBDR4
Good materials are hard to find so it’s better to make guitars through limited production by hand instead of mass production. Trees are very important “precious” things so we should make good use of them. Guitars made with “heart” are the best use of trees. Kazuo Yairi

When was my Yairi made?
By reading the number stamped on the heel block of your Yairi, you can tell in which year it was made. The first two numbers correspond to the year of the Emperor of Japan at that time, see chart below. The second two numbers refer to the month of production. Taken from The Fellowship of Acoustics

A.D.       Emperor                Year
1970      Shōwa                  45
1971                                    46
1972                                    47
1973                                     48
1974                                     49
1975                                     50
1976                                     51
1977                                     52
1978                                     53
1979                                     54
1980                                     55
1981                                     56
1982                                     57
1983                                     58
1984                                     59
1985                                     60
1986                                     61
1987                                     62
1988                                     63
1989       Heisei                    1
1990                                     2
1991                                     3
1992                                     4
1993                                     5
1994                                     6
1995                                     7
1996                                     8
1997                                     9
1998                                     10
1999                                     11
2000                                     12
End of Emperor Date Code
2001                                       01
2002                                       02
2003                                       03
2004                                       04
etc.

Emperor Shōwa and future Emperor Heisei on 10 April 1959