Tokai Employee Norihiro Yoshida 1979-1984

[Sigmania]

The blog of a Tokai marketing/sales employee Norihiro Yoshida from 1979-1984.

Homer J. Simpson turned up page 2 in a search and it is a gold mine of information.

Saving these 3 pages in order.

 

[Sigmania]

http://fridays-dream.com/toukaigakki1.html
Tokai Musical Instruments Manufacturing Co., Ltd. 1

In the summer of your third year of high school, when you made the final decision about your career path, did you make your homeroom teacher happy by saying, "I'm going to get a job!"? However, at that time, I specifically said, "I want to get a job at Tokai Gakki."

After making various arrangements, the company brochure below was sent to me.

This is the front and back cover of the company profile at that time. It's a pretty solid thing. I still have it.​

After that, I actually went to Tokai Gakki in Hamamatsu for a company tour, but unfortunately it was . "Naito-san" from the general affairs department? But please guide me. I visited the head office factory, the Terashima factory, and the Enshu-Hamaryo factory by car (the commercial vehicle I used at that time was often used after that), and it was all very interesting places. The dormitory is also a solid place, so I decided to stay here.

And after that, the ′′ entrance exam ′′ for the time being? There was, but I thought, "I wonder if I came from the farthest place?", but it wasn't. Many people came from various places, such as people from Kyushu and people from Niigata . For the entrance exam, there was a "written test" and an "interview", but

I remember that the written test was extremely ordinary. As I learned later, junior high school graduates were also included in the exam at that time, so it was a problem of the level of completing compulsory education. I have one question that I still remember. ..."When is the opening date of the Sanyo Shinkansen? , I didn't understand this! "Is it a knowledge problem?" Do you answer politely and confidently in a clear tone? Thanks to what I did, I received a notice that I passed the exam at a later date, and it was decided that I would join Tokai Gakki.

In March 1979 (Showa 54), I officially joined Tokai Musical Instrument Manufacturing Co., Ltd., but I moved into a dormitory in Enshuhama. However, since most of my luggage had been carried before then, on that day (the day before the entrance ceremony), I took out a case containing my favorite "Tokai T1200R". The dormitory was basically two people per room, but at the time there were plenty of rooms, so I moved in with one person per room.

This is the inside of "Enshu Hamaryo". This is after the second time, right? I've been in the dormitory several times, but when I got used to it, it wasn't very clean, was it?​

On the day of the joining ceremony, I have a warm memory of various events, but among them, there was an announcement of the placement of new employees. I was placed in the "sales department", but I thought, "Oh, I didn't make a promise!" That is to say... there should have been a promise made between the school and the company that they would be assigned to the production department. Even though I was confused, I couldn't complain, and time went on as it was. I also heard about this later, but it seems that the company was aware of this promise, but they gave priority to assigning graduates of industrial schools to the production department. It seems that it became a "sales department" after seeing the responses such as However, I think that being placed in the sales department was a good result.

Tokai Gakki seems to have decided to strengthen its sales force this year, and 6 people were assigned to the sales department, including 4 university graduates and 2 high school graduates
　.

The date is March 22nd. March 22, 1979 From this day, I entered a training period of about two months. This is what the president said on the first day. "In life, the difference in ability is small and the difference in effort is big!"

The training period was very interesting. As a sales department, you have to understand all the company's products. However, the other departments were on site in about two weeks, so it seems that they were looking at them with a feeling of, "Wait, is it okay for those people to be elegant?"

After the training period was over, I was assigned to the field, but university graduates were "headquarters sales department" along with another high school graduate. I was. The head office sales department did not engage in direct sales activities , but was mainly responsible for backing up the Tokyo, Osaka, Chubu, and Kyushu sales offices and responding to inquiries from all over the country. for example···

One of the jobs I used to do well was to respond to inquiries from users. 　I was able to answer the questions sent to me by postcard, over the phone, or on the "customer postcard" sent to me when I purchased the guitar. The notepaper on the left is what I actually wrote at that time. Some of you who are looking at this page may have actually seen this kind of response?​

This is how I started my life at Tokai Gakki.

 

[Sigmania]

http://fridays-dream.com/toukaigakki2.html


Tokai Musical Instruments Manufacturing Co., Ltd. 2

I got a job at Tokai Gakki and started living in Hamamatsu, but what kind of place was Hamamatsu and Tokai Gakki?

The first thing that surprised me when I went to Hamamatsu? That is...a lot of bikes! As expected, it is the birthplace of HONDA, YAMAHA, and SUZIKI! One more thing that really surprised me! Isn't your child playing "baseball"? This was a culture shock! I'm from Hyogo Prefecture, the hometown of "Koshien," the mecca of baseball. , it was not. What the children in Hamamatsu were doing was "soccer"! As expected of the soccer kingdom "Shizuoka Prefecture". (This was long before the "J.League" was established.)

Other than that, the sunset is beautiful! This was impressive. Takarazuka City, Hyogo Prefecture, where I was born and raised, has mountains such as "Mt. Therefore, you can see a beautiful sunset only a few times a year. That was every day in Hamamatsu. And that the city is quiet! Conversely, does this mean that Takarazuka is noisy? The sound of trains, the sound of jet planes arriving at and departing from Osaka Airport, and so on.

In particular, the head office of Tokai Musical Instruments was located in the "Terawaki Tekko Danchi" (inside the rice field)...

This is the head office of Tokai Musical Instruments located at 36 Terawaki-cho, Hamamatsu City. Unfortunately it doesn't exist anymore. The long prefabricated building between the larger buildings was where the dining room and "service center" were located. On the right side, there was a raw material storage area and a natural drying area .​

In this factory, guitars, pianicas, pianos, etc. were made. Guitars were mainly mass-produced, and high-end handicrafts were produced at the Terashima Factory. In the image, you can see a row of guitars from "Cat's Eye", but since I joined the company, "Tokai" brand electric guitars have become the main product.​

This is the banjo production line. Even so, banjos were produced in extremely small quantities, so they were produced in a small space with only a few people. The person in the back is Mr. Nozawa, who was introduced in the banjo catalog.​

Raw guitars produced at the headquarters factory in Terawaki were mainly mass-produced products. We produced CE150-CE300 mass-produced products and CE400-CE600 semi-manufactured products. Luxury handicrafts with a CE rating of 800 or higher were made at the "Terashima Factory" on the south side of Hamamatsu Station.

This is the "Terashima Factory". Wasn't there a big power machine here? So it was a very relaxing atmosphere.​

It was a factory like this, but when you think of a factory where guitars are made , it's easy to have an image of specialized, veteran craftsmen who carefully work one by one. But... (like the image above?)

Actually, there are a lot of "babies around there" everywhere, and they're working hard because they're pressed for time. I felt like saying. It was never a special factory. It was just a very ordinary production factory, and what they were making was "musical instruments."

However, there were many musical instrument enthusiasts from all over the country who lived in the dormitory in Enshuhama, so you could say that it was always filled with the sounds of musical instruments
　.

This was the Enshuhama Dormitory. I lived on the 3rd and 4th floors. It was very close to Enshunada (sea), and I could always hear the sound of waves. (It was very loud and it took me a while to get used to it.) However, swimming is prohibited at Enshu Beach. The waves were too rough... This building is the current "Tokai Musical Instruments Headquarters".​

After working at Tokai Gakki head office for more than half a year (nearly a year?), I was transferred to the Osaka sales office. At the Osaka office, I was mainly doing warehouse work such as delivery and answering the phone. When I was transferred to the Osaka sales office, Managing Director Oba said, "Hey, you're Yoshida-kun! You're good at answering the phone, so you'll do well." . Then, eventually, I started working in sales...but...

I joined Tokai Gakki because I wanted to make guitars... but it's true that it gradually became less interesting. I thought, "Do you want to change jobs?", but it's true that I want to be involved in musical instruments...

At that time, the company told me an interesting story... In relation to the delivery business, they had been doing minor repairs, but this time they were going to cut costs by doing more serious repairs. By saying so, I decided to study "repair" for a while at the "head office service center". It was there that I met Hideki Torii, who is now famous for repairing guitars.

Is this person my teacher? This is Mr. Hideki Torii. After joining Tokai Gakki, he worked at harmonica and guitar production sites, and since 1972, he has been in charge of repairing guitars in the "repair department". Currently, he is independent and runs a repair studio "Otori Musical Instruments" in his home in Mikyu-cho, Minami-ku, Hamamatsu City. Torii-san is a fun person who is always joking around. His wife is also a very good person, and both of them are typical "Hamamatsu" people. (My image) But... at heart, he is a very serious person! ! really!​

Under Mr. Torii's guidance, I learned a lot about basic guitar repair. How to create a work environment. It's all about things that I still refer to, such as how to make. There was a "service center" in the Tokai Gakki head office factory , so there were many materials for repairs and materials for making small items necessary for repairs . The leftovers that were in the trash can were all better than the high-end guitars being produced today, weren't they?​

After spending nearly a year at the head office and service center, I returned to the Osaka sales office. However, there was no equipment at the Osaka sales office, and there were other tasks, so I couldn't do the work that I was doing at the service center. That's part of the reason why I feel like I've gradually drifted away from the musical instrument industry. Also, around the same time, at the Tokyo sales office... I joined Tokai Gakki as a "rush employee" and started a guitar repair job... Now, I'm a very famous repairman who is trusted by famous guitar players.

There was Mr. Masaharu Imai, who was appointed. He was enrolled at Tokai Gakki at the same time, so I may have met him at a general sales meeting, but I don't remember. A few years ago, I visited Mr. Imai's studio in Takadanobaba, Tokyo, and talked ... He was an interesting and eccentric person, wasn't he?

As time went by, the company's economy gradually deteriorated (later filed for a peace settlement in the first half of 1985?). The long-term absence from work due to an accident was the trigger, and in September 1985? I have decided to retire from Tokai Gakki, where I worked for six years.

My life at Tokai Gakki was full of fun things, so there was some loneliness, but when I took a closer look at the musical instrument industry, I saw many contradictions... and the future was uncertain. Therefore, it is also true that I thought, "Is it high time?"

I didn't have any plans to change jobs after I retired, so I thought, "For now, take it easy for a while..." and went to Shinshu Nagano on a motorcycle touring...

　

 

[Sigmania]

http://fridays-dream.com/toukaigakki3.html

Tokai Musical Instruments Manufacturing Co., Ltd. 3

I was working for "Tokai Musical Instrument Manufacturing Co., Ltd." in Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture. I was a member of the company until the end of 1984, and it was certainly a very interesting company! However, since there were many musical instruments that were mainly produced using "wood" as a raw material, it is certain that there was always a risk of being fundamentally "unprofitable".

It's true that when I joined the company for about 2 or 3 months, I thought, "Is this really not possible?" Even young people who entered after graduating from high school understood this. Why? Instruments that use wood (especially instruments that emphasize wood grain) are limited in the materials that can be used . In particular, for manufacturers that mass produce to a certain extent, they do not do inefficient things such as purchasing the front plate one by one.

Naturally, by purchasing in bulk, the cost of purchases can be lowered, but then, as a matter of course, there will be materials that cannot be used. For example, "the wood grain is not beautiful" or "the wood grain is beautiful, but it has a seam". I'm going to have a good time. In addition, the material used for the table board is basically "straight grain" board, but "straight grain board" is called "quarter sawn" in English, and only one quarter can be taken from the log. It's the material. It also means that three-fourths of the log will be wasted. And since wood is a "living material" even after it is felled, it may become 　In this way, it can be said that wood products such as guitars are destined to be prone to "waste" during the process from raw materials to finished products. If this is an individual production of about 10 or so a year, it is possible to examine and purchase the materials for each piece and produce it without waste. It will go away.

Due to these circumstances, the size of the Tokai Musical Instruments company was incomplete. It might have been better if it had a small number of people like "Yairi Guitar", but it is a medium-sized company with about 400 employees? Was it? Limbo? I think it was.

However, the president at the time, Mr. Tadayuki Adachi, was well aware of the situation. And he had some very interesting ideas. I belonged to the sales department, so I may have had more opportunities to meet him than regular employees, but I always thought he was a very unique person.

On the face of it, Managing Director Toshio Oba seemed to be in charge of everything, but in reality, I think President Adachi was leading Tokai Gakki.

This is Mr. Tadayuki Adachi, 　the president at the time . 　During the Pacific War, 　did you go to mainland China with Managing Director Oba 　and play various pranks? 　I heard 　a lot of fun stories !​

What kind of unique ideas did you have? (There are a lot of things that are taken for granted, but...) "Salespeople tell us to make easy-to-sell products, but what can we do? If it's a product that sells, we need a salesperson." What if you say that? (It's the Enshu dialect. Everyone at the head office speaks the Enshu dialect, right?) That was a reasonable opinion!

"Even if you say that handmade is good, you say that handmade is good, why do you have to carve everything by hand from a log?" Why don't you just do the last important part by hand? Until then, did you do it with a machine...?

Is it the first time in the industry that it was introduced by saying, "Computer-controlled three-dimensional NC router". With the introduction of this machine, it became possible to produce electric guitar bodies with overwhelming speed and accuracy.

"If there is a lot of waste in using wood... why do you use wood?" There's no law against using anything other than wood to make a guitar ! '

Well, if it doesn't produce a good sound because it has different characteristics from wood, why not develop a material that has the same characteristics as wood and produces a good sound? If that's the case, can't you just throw away all the waste?

With this in mind, we developed the "Talbo" electric guitar with an aluminum alloy body, and the "MAT" series of electric guitars made from carbon materials. bottom. The "MAT" was launched with a wooden neck, but later developed into an all-carbon guitar with a carbon neck.

These revolutionary guitars... didn't sell at all?

Did users not keep up with this revolutionary idea? It seemed (Later, it was reviewed and the evaluation seemed to have risen...) However, since those technologies were developed and commercialized, I think that the latent ability of Tokai Musical Instruments was still very high.

This kind of thinking was also used in "Piano". The mechanism that produces the sound of a piano is called an "action". In the case of , "crazy" and defective parts are likely to appear, and many parts must be manufactured one by one.

"Then make one out of plastic!" So I introduced a plastic action, but the world of pianos is far more "conservative" than the world of guitars, so sales were very difficult.

Well, these capital investments and development costs (especially capital investments for piano production) put pressure on cash flow, and the appreciation of the yen was the main factor. It seems to be said.

In particular, we often heard that the impact of the appreciation of the yen was large for those of us in the sales department. Tokai musical instruments at that time
It seems that there was also a considerable profit from exports. I remember the Trade Department often saying, "If the dollar goes up to 170 yen, we can do our best, but if it goes below that, it's impossible!"

This is what I saw as an insider of the company situation at the time when Tokai Gakki applied for a peace settlement.

Of course, I was the most "low-ranking" employee, so I don't think it's a certainty...

 

[Sigmania]

Things that jump out at me from that article:

- "Terashima Factory" for "high-end handicrafts", CE800 and higher
- entrance test, almost like applying for college?
- "banjo catalog" ? Would that be a Cat's Eyes catalog or a different one?
- "repair department"
- Talbo and MAT were an idea to avoid waste of wood material
- margin was very tight and depended on relation of the Japanese yen and the USD


Names to follow up on...
- Tokai President Mr. Tadayuki Adachi
- Managing Director Toshio Oba
- Hideki Torii, who is now famous for repairing guitars, "Otori Musical Instruments"
- Mr. Masaharu Imai
- Mr. Imai's studio in Takadanobaba, Tokyo

 

[Homer J. Simpson]

- "banjo catalog" ? Would that be a Cat's Eyes catalog or a different one?

https://brochures.yokochou.com/acoustic-guitar/tokai/1975/jp_index.html

 

[Sigmania]

Yep. I have a copy of that one. 1976 I believe.

I was wondering if there might be one that is only banjos?

 

[Sigmania]

Tokai factories he lists in 1979:

- Head office factory. 36 Terawaki-cho, Hamamatsu City.
- Terashima factory (on the south side of Hamamatsu Station)
- Enshu-Hamaryo factory

Offices:

- Head office located in the "Terawaki Tekko Danchi" (inside the rice field). 36 Terawaki-cho, Hamamatsu City.
- Osaka sales office

 

[Homer J. Simpson]

- Enshuhama Ryō (=dormitory) wasn't a factory yet in 1979.

- Terawaki Tekko Danchi (= "ironworks complex") seems to be the name for a whole industrial area in Terawaki-cho.

- The Ikebe Talbo page lists a "woodworking factory" in Onji-cho, but that's seemingly not referenced by Norihiro Yoshida. Not sure if it still exists - if the placemark on GM is correct then it doesn't, even though many factory tour reports and a Japanese biker's blog have not very old pics of it. It is or was vis-a-vis a rice field too.

- 36 Terawakicho is not a valid address (or not anymore), but maybe it means "36 area" because individual 3-digit addresses on the west side of Terawaki-cho start with 36. It's not on the map but it may have been somewhere to the left of the marked "Tekko Danchi" area.



Some factory tour reports note that the CNC-machinery is not in the dormitory building (and likely not in the fabric hut next door that seems to be the paint shop). So either that's in the unknown "Talbo" place or yet another location exists.

 

[Sigmania]

- Enshuhama Ryō (=dormitory) wasn't a factory yet in 1979.

After that, I actually went to Tokai Gakki in Hamamatsu for a company tour, but unfortunately it was . "Naito-san" from the general affairs department? But please guide me. I visited the head office factory, the Terashima factory, and the Enshu-Hamaryo factory by car (the commercial vehicle I used at that time was often used after that), and it was all very interesting places. The dormitory is also a solid place, so I decided to stay here.

Maybe an issue wit the word that is translating as "factory" ? Or his use of the word?

 

[Homer J. Simpson]

Maybe an issue wit the word that is translating as "factory" ? Or his use of the word?

More an issue with Google Translate. It literally ends up as "Enshu-Hamadormitory factory".

DeepL translates it like this:

After that, I actually went to Tokai Gakki in Hamamatsu for a company tour, but unfortunately it was raining that day. Unfortunately, it was raining that day. Mr. "Naito-san" from the General Affairs Department? Mr. "Naito-san" of the General Affairs Department guided us around. We drove around the main factory, Terashima factory, and Enshuhama dormitory.
I was given a tour by car (I often used the car I was driving at that time), and it was a very interesting tour.

Obviously, machine translation of Japanese is very difficult and none of the translators are anywhere near perfect for narratives, particularly when the writing is not full Yomiori Shimbun or NHK style. Even short phrases can turn out really confusing and say the opposite of what they should say, two of them in a row can make you lose the context needed to understand everything that follows. It's not that bad with this text though, I had much more difficulties making sense of Kazuo Morioka's memoirs a few years ago.

I recently read how you were asking about one of the most confusing things in some other thread - pronouns. I, we, they... gets all messed up in translation, which is particularly bad if you're trying to find out who made what part or who was hiring whom. Little example from the same text passage:

(the commercial vehicle I used at that time was often used after that)

It doesn't say who drove the car but whoever it was, he didn't crash it.

(I often used the car I was driving at that time)

Norihiro-san drove the car on the guided tour, and often used it as a driver or passenger after that.

(I often used the business car at the time, after that)

Only the third translation confirms the suspicion that the actual meaning of the sentence is that Norihiro Yoshida was a passenger in the company vehicle used for the factory tour, and that he got to drive it himself after he was hired. This appears obvious because the context is predictable and simple.

Now imagine trying to figure out what shares in which instrument store chain where held by factory owner X, whose factory was partially owned by manager Y, who had shares in company Z, to understand keiretsu. Not going to happen through machine translation.

 

[Sigmania]

I just spotted this in one of my translations of a flyer from 1978 or so.

★ Creators of Cat's Eye Guitar, Tokai Banjo ...
Tokai Keiki Co., Ltd. Manufacturing Headquarters
Chubu Sales Office 36ph, 0534-41-3137
Sales Office, Terawaki-cho, Hamamatsu-shi,
Osaka 03-563-2451,
Osaka 06-385-0913・
Fukuoka 092-511 -6263-
Sapporo 011-723-0309

1978 ? "Les Paul Reborn" Fold Out Hi Res Scans and Translation

 

[Homer J. Simpson]

Another key person not named here yet is Masahiro Matsui, head of Tokai's guitar production and designer of the Hummingbird electric. That's unfortunately all the anglophone internet has to offer about Mr. Matsui. The Japanese internet has at least the happy information that Mr. Matsui is still making (pretty stunning!) guitars in his small custom shop in Hamamatsu!



(Unfortunately these second hand guitars offered in shops (1) (2) is all I can find, it seems Mr. Matsui doesn't have a website.)

 

[Sigmania]

Very cool.

 

[chuckyz2]

You guys are amazing. Keep up the good work. Very interesting stuff.

 

[Voidoid56]

Great read, many thanks guys! So good to get a bit of look-and-feel background to the production of these guitars as well as useful facts. Please keep it up!

 

[Sigmania]

One of the things that jumped out at me was he was talking about strategies to reduce costs. He didn't mention bankruptcy, but he did say that the Talbo was an effort to cut material costs on wood. And I suspect the proliferation of painted guitars was another way to use lower cost/quality woods and hide flaws, etc. with paint.

 

[Homer J. Simpson]

I guess thinking about ways to cut costs is part of being a company and materials cost money, Mr. Yoshida's assertion of the motives could be at least for the most part correct. One dollar saved in wood per guitar means nothing if you make 10 guitars a year, if you make 10,000 that's $10,000. However, I have a hard time believing that an aluminum guitar body would be cheaper than wood, which I think is less of a cost factor than marketing wants everyone to believe.

What may have caused the biggest headache at that time (1979-1984) was likely labor costs increasing up to ~25% tho, and I guess labor exceeds material costs in industrial scale guitar manufacturing by dunno, 0.5-1 orders of magnitude?

 

[Sigmania]

Another key person not named here yet is Masahiro Matsui, head of Tokai's guitar production and designer of the Hummingbird electric. That's unfortunately all the anglophone internet has to offer about Mr. Matsui. The Japanese internet has at least the happy information that Mr. Matsui is still making (pretty stunning!) guitars in his small custom shop in Hamamatsu!

View attachment 31009
View attachment 31010
(Unfortunately these second hand guitars offered in shops (1) (2) is all I can find, it seems Mr. Matsui doesn't have a website.)

Found him on an insane video of Tokai history.

The Smoking Gun...