MUSICAL INSTRUMENT INDUSTRY IN HAMAMATSU

Abstract

Hamamatsu industrial region which are located in the western part of Shizuoka Prefecture is an old industrial region in the Tokai region. The most important industries of the region are cotton textile, musical instrument and transportation machinery and they are called big-three industries in this region. And the others are fabricated metal, machine tool, timber, dying and food industries. These industries have never developed separately at all, but they have developed in close relationship with each other, and the preceding industry in this region has functioned as leading industry for the birth of new one. The output of the musical instruments in the Hamamatsu region now accounts for 99.5% of piano production and about 80% of organ production in Japan, and such exclusive production of musical instruments in the Hamamatsu region is not accidental even at all, but the localization was sustained by the geographical conditions and the industrial context of the region. The manufacturing of musical instruments in Hamamatsu was started by Torakusu Yamaha. He was born in Wakayama, became a repairman of medical appliances and stayed in Hamamatsu by chance. When he established Yamaha Organ Company in 1888 and began to make organs, there were several favorable conditions for him in Hamamatsu, especially the capitals and the techniques. The capitals offered to him by the entrepreneurs in Hamamatsu were those accumulated in this region through the tea and cotton texitile manufac Luring from the Feudal Days and among the techniques offered were those of the ingravers in Hamamatsu, and of the ship carpenters in Kakezuka, the old harbour of the Hamamatsu clan at the mouth of River Tenryu. Torakushu Yamaha established the Nippon Gakki Company in 1897 and began the production of pianos in 1900. Koichi Kawai who was an engineer, a inventor of piano action and also a head of the piano action in Nippon Gakki Co. established Kawai Gakki Company in 1927 and since then the production of musical instruments in Hamamatsu has developed. After the Second World War, the new factories of musical instruments have increased year by year. They reached 32 factories in 1961 (16 in 1950), and they produced mainly pianos. The special features of the production after the War are the increase of parts-making works of small scale and piano factories. Nippon Gakki and Kawai Gakki also developed in close connection with such parts-making works. The plywood is very important material for the production of organ and piano, and plywood factory was already established in the Hamamatsu region in 1908 by Nippon Gakki. The facilities and the techniques of plywood production has given birth to the woody propeller production in 1921 and this has once more given birth to the metallic propeller production since 1931. These propeller industry by Nippon Gakki has not only become the core of the munition industry in Hamamatsu during the Second World War, but also the foundation of the transportation machinery industry with main production of motor bicycles and moter boats after the War.