Tokai Factories in Hamamatsu, Japan

[Sigmania]

I noticed a "2" at the top of the page title, so I changed the address substituting a "1" and got this:

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/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 is it 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 don't 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]

2023 tour of the Hamamatsu factory by Nafiri Music in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Shared in another thread by Homer J Simpson

 

[Sigmania]

Luis' factory tour in 2002

Tokai Guitar Registry - Tokai Factory Tour

 

[Sigmania]

Tokai had two places back in 2002 when I had the honour to visit them, both in Hamamatsu about 15 minutes far away by car.

Luis' factory tour in 2002

Tokai Guitar Registry - Tokai Factory Tour

 

[Sigmania]

Looks like more than one location for the production of acoustics in the 1970s:

Terashima and Terwaki Cat's Eyes Production

Terawaki factory site and head office of Tokai at least up until 1986 based on catalog addresses.

 

[Sigmania]

Homer's map of the various production sites over time.

Not sure about the location of the main factory since it seems pretty far away from the dormitory but that's roughly the area of Terawaki-cho addresses starting with 36, Minami ward (where Terawaki-cho is located) basically ends where the highway is to the south of it so it must have been somewhere in that area (I guess).

 

[Sigmania]

Homer's image at the bottom of the stone monument that was likely at the original Terawaki factory and moved.

The sign is from the old Terawaki factory, but it is now greeting people at the dormitory factory:

View attachment 33914

 

[Sigmania]

1992 catalog that I have seems to show a different address.

 

[Sigmania]

Phone number changed between 1986 and 1987 catalogs.

Not sure if thta indicates a change in address. Addresses not given in catalogs in this period.

1986:
(0534)41-3137

1987:
(0534) 25-3631

 

[Sigmania]

1985 catalog with old address ? Translation off phonetically. I need to get a better scan if it is critical in nailing down the date of the move.

 

[Homer J. Simpson]

Pretty sure it is the old address ^^ in '85 (6/7 illegible characters ending 36, same phone number). Excellent idea checking the catalogs for phone numbers and addresses! A period without an address would be plausible too, or maybe there's even an information in that, that they didn't have much time to plan their next steps after whatever happened to the old factory complex. Maybe converting the old dorm building to a factory wasn't their first choice.

 

[Sigmania]

I will keep chipping away at this. I hadn’t realized they moved until you mentioned it. Repeatedly. I’m a little slow. lol.

I had noticed a real drop off on examples of guitars around 1989 as well as a contraction in the product line in the late 80s.

Then in the early 90s I see more examples of MIJ ST models. Then the shift to Korean during production of Fenders in Japan.

Do you know where they were making guitars in the 90s?

And where are they now?

The pics I see of factory tours in the 2000s looks like an old building with old equipment.

I need to look back through factory tour pictures now that I realized they had to move at least once.

That Terawaki location looks pretty spacious in retrospect.

 

[Sigmania]

So looking at tour photos taken in 2012 and later, I am seeing that they seem to be the Dormitory Factory as you describe it.

2012 Drowning In Guitars Tour



2016 Iain Black Tour





2022 Tokai Australia. Same green floor.




2023 Nafiri Guitars Tour

 

[Sigmania]

Address page on my 1975 Cat's Eyes catalog. I was hoping it wold indicate the location of the Terashima facility.

 

[Homer J. Simpson]

And where are they now?

Still in the dormitory factory, the map is current.

Address page on my 1975 Cat's Eyes catalog. I was hoping it wold indicate the location of the Terashima facility.

Unsurprisingly, still only the head office in the Terawaki factory.

I need to look back through factory tour pictures now that I realized they had to move at least once.

They likely moved production only once. All pictured tours we have seen so far are in the dormitory factory, to some degree identifiable through the ceiling height and special windows in that building. Not surprising, because all indications so far point at a relocation date in the second half of the 80s, and all the tours were later.

When it was still the dormitory:

Dormitory factory, the shed to the left is the paint booth:

There is a second (not yet located but mentioned in most of these tour reports) factory building where the CNC machinery is located and apparently the Talbo aluminum bodies are machined.

This 1987 flyer shows something that looks like a PO box address or something for catalogs:

1987 NEW catalog completed.In addition to enclosing a 250 yen stamp, flat number and Please specify your address, name, age, occupation, and telephone address: Teramachi, Hamamatsu City, 430 To Tokai Musical Instrument Manufacturing Co., Ltd. PM2.

Also, the number changed in 1987 as you mentioned, to (0534) 25-3631.

The same number is in use in the 1989 catalog, that doesn't list an address either:



1991:



According to Wikipedia, the Japanese phone number system was a bit restructured in 1990, so the area code is now (053) and the exchange number preceding the subscriber number is now 3-digit. Still the same number though and no address, but I was already sure at this point that this is the Enshuhama dormitory. Maybe they were not planning to stay there, so they did not bother to print materials with that address yet.

They did in 1994 though - same phone number, with address in the half domestic, half international catalog:

Tokai Musical Instrument Manufacturing Co., Ltd. 2-26-10 Enshuhama, Hamamatsu City 430 PHONE 053-425-3631

That's the current address - mystery solved I guess? They likely* moved there in 1987, and there was apparently not a huge delay between whatever happened 1986 and continuing operations in the Enshuhama dormitory.

Edit: Forgot to add, the 1989 catalog shows the new (and possibly current) phone number, actually just the new subscriber number -2800.

* Unless they ported their new number to yet another address, if that was possible in Japan in 1987.

 

[Sigmania]

Detail of the 1987 US Masters flyer.

 

[Homer J. Simpson]

Ah yes I see, this scan is better and that's actually still the old address in 1987. Too bad we can't know when that was printed (in 1987 or for 1987). Also I wonder what the "deadline approaching" means?

 

[Sigmania]

1982 Spring catalog

 

[Sigmania]

Which building(s) would this be?

It shows an outdoor pic of the entrance of the Dormitory building. Not sure if all the pics are in the same building?

I am seeing TALBOs and a Zematis style LP.

2012 ?