Overview
Currently, Ibanez guitars – and the world-famous drum brand Tama – are part of the Hoshino Group. Hoshino Gakki is a Japanese musical instrument trading company.
Both brands number among the best-selling and most-respected in their categories, although Hoshino itself manufactures only the Tama drum line through its Hoshino Gakki Hanbai and Hoshino Gakki Manufacturing subsidiaries.
For the Ibanez brand, Hoshino provides research, design, and prototype construction support, while also handling worldwide distribution operations. Production of the wide range of Ibanez models is contracted out to third-party manufacturers, including Hoshino’s primary and long-time partner in Japan, Fuji-Gen Gakki, which also produces guitars for Fender (notably the Squier line) and domestic brand Greco, as well as products for the Roland and Casio brands.
Since the 1990s, Hoshino has contracted a growing portion of its guitar production to manufacturers in Korea, Indonesia and China. The company’s US subsidiary also produces custom-built and prototype guitars for the company’s star endorsers.
In 2002, the company stepped up its distribution presence in Europe by acquiring Ibanez, Tama and Mesa Boogie importer Serlui in The Netherlands in 2002 (renamed to Hoshino Benelux in 2007 and Hoshino Europe in 2017).
Today, Hoshino is led by Yoshihiro Hoshino, grandson of the private company’s founder.
The beginning
Hoshino Gakki was founded in 1908 by Matsujiro Hoshino in the city of Nagoya, Japan. The first Hoshino Company – the Hoshino Shoten bookstore – mostly sold books and sheet music. The bookstore is still in Nagoya – rebuilt after World War II – but it was branched off and is currently operated by another member of the Hoshino family.
In 1908 Hoshino started selling organs. This event originated from an order for an organ to be used for songs included in the textbooks the bookstore handled. This marked the official start of its journey into the musical instrument business. Yoshitaro Hoshino – the son of Matsujiro and his wife Tama (drum brand Tama is named after her) and founder & head of the music department – played a key role in this expansion. Yoshitaro and his wife had four sons; Ryohei, Jumpei, Masao, and Yoshihiro, each of whom have played an important role in the development of the company.
The fourth son, Yoshihiro Hoshino, is currently the chairman of the company.
The Hoshino Bookstore occupied a large two-story wooden building on the main street called Miyuki Hondori. Large scale wholesaling of musical instruments within Japan was initiated in 1928. It took 21 (!) years after its formation in 198 before the Hoshino Gakki Ten Inc. was to become established. The reason for the long delay was that the demand for musical instruments was insufficient to fully support the company.
Hoshino Musical Instruments was originally located at 8 Chome, Miyuki Honcho, Nishiku (currently 3 Chome, Nishiki Naka-ku).
Under the direction of Yoshitaro Hoshino, organs were displayed and sold from the bookstore. A great deal of time and effort went into cultivation the desire for his customers to purchase his musical instruments.
Yoshitaro Hoshino’s first son Ryohei, was a graduate of the prestigious Nagoya City Nagoya Commercial High School, popularly known as CA. Even before graduation, he had acquired a good command of English starting in his middle school and had used this skill to help his father in the importing of musical instruments. Ryohei’s knowledge of English allowed the Hoshino Gakki Ten Inc. to increase their sales of imported musical instruments.
In 1926 they started to import a variety of musical instruments such as wind and string instruments, reeds and accessories from Europe and the United States.
In 1929 for business reasons the family decided to split into two areas, one being the current store and the other being Hoshino Gakki Ten musical instruments, founded by Yoshihiro’s Mother, Tama and Father, Yoshitaro, now age 39. Although this was for him personally the most energetic time of his life, it also coincided with the onset of the worst depression in world history. Many banks as well as established companies were going bankrupt at an ever-increasing rate. How difficult of a decision it must have been for the manager to decide to aggressively launch a new business venture in this time of deep economic depression. It speaks well of the bravery of the manager to make his decision in view of the bleak economic climate.
After Ryohei’s graduation from CA, he traveled to Shanghai which was one of the liveliest cities of its day. He told his father that he intended to learn the ways of foreign countries. It was in Shanghai that he discovered and became interested in a table game played by four people called Mahjongg. His interest in the game led him to buy a quantity of the playing tiles and to bring them back to Japan with him.
Upon his return to Japan, he told his father of the huge popularity of the game in China and decided to sell the tile sets in Nagoya. It was Ryohei’s belief that ordinary merchandise would not sell during the depression. He reasoned that the people needed something that would divert their attention from their daily drab existence. His idea proved to be true. Mahjongg began to grow in popularity in Nagoya and throughout the country to the extent that by 1929, the first National Mahjongg tournament was held in Tokyo.
The present president of the company, Yoshihiro Hoshino, credits his brother Ryohei as being instrumental in the spread of the popularity of Mahjongg in the Nagoya area.
One of the things that Ryohei did was to set aside a section of the bookstore for the display and sale of Mahjongg tiles. A sign placed over the tiles read; ‘we have all items needed to open a Mahjongg parlor’. The tiles proved to be a tremendous seller.
It is safe to assume that not many of today’s many Mahjongg fans are aware of the role that Ryohei played in spreading the popularity of the game in Nagoya.
After the establishment of Hoshino Gakki Ten company, they began the Importing of musical instruments into Japan. Around 1929 the Japanese government wanted the schools to start teaching music education as a basic curriculum. Before the government intervention, musical education was not thought of as a basic course in schools. During that time the only popular instrument was the organ, and Hoshino’s organ business was good. The organs that Hoshino Gakki sold were actually Japanese Yamaha organs. These organs had no motor but used a foot powered air blower.
Hoshino Gakki saw this opportunity for an increase in sales since music stores were few and far between. They made a decision to increase importing musical instruments into Japan. During that time the Hoshino music store also sold various school supplies such as books, pencils and paper but the heart of the business was in the musical merchandise, so this is what they decided to concentrate on.
Initially, in 1929, when Hoshino Gakki Ten Inc. was first established, string instruments were imported directly from the prestigious Ibanez-Salvador Company in Spain.
The success of the imports from Spain led to subsequent imports of wind instruments from Czechoslovakia and parts for string instruments from the United States. Mr. Yoshihiro Hoshino also stated that they started importing Black Diamond Strings and various other instruments such as drums from outside Japan.
During the days of the economic depression, there was a great deal of unrest and civil disobedience in Japan. In 1930 alone, more than 400,000 people became unemployed. The then Prime Minister, Hamaguchi, was attacked in the Tokyo train station. In the years that followed, the Manchurian incident of 1931, the Shanghai incident and the assassination of the then Prime Minister Inukai in 1932 and Japan’s withdrawal from the League of Nations all took place. All of these occurrences as well as the spread of militarism led the Japanese people to turn to music, the arts as well as other forms of entertainment as a form of diversion.
All of this unrest helped to promote and popularize musical instruments in Japan. When a song ҋage wo Shitaite (Missing the Image) became a big favorite in 1932, many fans were moved to buy mandolins and guitars to play the song.
The first musical instrument catalog under the Hoshino Gakki Ten company was made in 1931 this catalog had many types of instruments from brass instruments to drums. There is only one copy of this catalog that we know of because during World War II the entire Nagoya area was bombed, and all the records were destroyed. This catalog was found buried in old books from the time still intact at the original bookstore location.
To find new instruments throughout the world to import into Japan another family member Ryohey Hoshino was traveling around the world looking for instruments to import. He started going to Europe to get mandolins, drums and accessories from Italy and Germany. As for local production of instruments, The Hoshino family found a few hundred miles north of them; a small city named Matsumoto. Matsumoto City had many small violin building companies that had good craftsman building violins by hand. Many smaller builders were branching off and going independent, opening their own production facilities. The Hoshino Family asked these small builders to start making some small quantities of instruments for them. To this day Matsumoto Japan is still the main center of Ibanez guitar production.
As the demand for musical instruments began to grow and stabilize, Hoshino Gakki Ten Inc., in 1935, decided to manufacture their own line of string instruments. Their main emphasis was on guitars. The first manufacturing plant was located at Yasuda Dori, Showa-ku, in Nagoya and employed about thirty (30) craftsmen. Nagoya has come to be known as the cradle of string instruments due to the many manufacturers that are located there. This was a possible incentive for the Hoshino Group to locate their manufacturing plant in that city.
Although Hoshino was to get off to a late start as a manufacturer, they quickly established themselves as a primary producer of high-quality instruments. By the late 1930ճ Yoshihiro Hoshino states that they were producing 1000 guitars every month. The high quality of their brand Ibanez was such that many people thought it to be imported from Spain.
At that time, Hoshino Instrument occupied a large store at 8 Chome, Miyuki Honcho consisting of a wholesale and a retail department adjacent to each other. They were one of only a few wholesalers in all of Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka to cover just the domestic sales.
Hoshino Gakki was also the first exporter of musical instruments from Japan, and they started their official export business in 1935 the first countries they were shipping Ibanez guitars to many South Asian countries like Taiwan, Indonesia, Indo China, Burma, and Korea.
By the late 1930’s Hoshino began importing Ludwig drums, they were also producing their own drums in Nagoya called Star Drums, named after the family, Hoshino means star in Japanese.
The imported products to Japan were shipped from other countries by ship to the Nagoya port. The port was located about 10 miles away. This was before there was any transportation in Japan so, Hoshino Company people would take handcarts to the port and stack as many guitars as they could and pull them back to the store.
Sometime around 1938 or 1939 the plant in Showa-Ku was destroyed by fire. Although they were able to relocate and restart their manufacturing operation, the output was scaled back. It was at that time that the country was plunged into World War II. The government regulated the manufacture of all non-essential goods, which were considered luxury items. Musical instruments headed the list of non-essential items, and their manufacture was severely restricted. In addition to the restrictions, material required for the manufacture of the instruments was in very short supply. In order to survive, Hoshino Gakki Ten Inc. turned to the manufacture of items other than musical instruments. At one point they used their acquired manufacturing knowledge to manufacture wooden handles for bags.
As the war continued, things became increasingly more difficult. One after another
each of Hoshino sons was called for war duties. At that point Hoshino Gakki Ten Inc. had no choice but to discontinue the business and lease out his plant in Showa-Ku An air attack that took place on March 10, 1944, burned down all of the Hoshino property including their 4000 sq. ft. store in Nagoya. Although as a result of the war Yoshitaro Hoshino lost all of his property, to his good fortune, all of his sons returned home unharmed.
After losing everything due to the war, Yoshitaro restarted his store in a shack built in Motoshige-cho Nakaku in 1948. It was not easy to restart the company from nothing. It took five years of desperately hard work on a daily basis in order to survive.
Yoshihiro Hoshino, the present president recalled those days.
“There were so many companies in the music business all in competition with each other that it was difficult for any to survive. Compared with the prewar period it was completely different.
I was a recent graduate of CA (1947) and it was a most difficult period both emotionally and physically for all recent graduates or any young people just returning from the war.
In a way I can now say that I really had a good experience. Because we could not only do domestic business, just like prewar, we turned our attention to foreign countries as our next market.”
Using the unburned business list that was used before the war, Hoshino started to communicate with foreign countries. In order to do this, a typewriter was needed to write order forms in English. Yoshihiro was able to locate a typewriter repair shop along the moat of Nagoya castle. In exchange for a small gift, he was allowed to use some of the recently repaired typewriters.
For a period after the war, the company temporarily manufactured items such as ceramic desk lamps and molded paper punches. This was necessary in order to address the shortages of food and other daily necessities.
By the early 1940s World War II had started, and Japan was right in the middle of it, as we know. The United States bombing of Japan was severe and most of the cities including Nagoya where completely destroyed. Hoshino’s main operation was destroyed in 1944 causing a complete stop to all operations. The company was basically out of business until 1948 when they started to rebuild the business.
Just after the war the current chairman and current president, Mr. Yoshihiro Hoshino was working with another company that made chinaware for exporting. His job was preparing shipping documents for export. Around 1940 when his brother became ill, Yoshihiro was called back Hoshino Gakki, and he started doing the shipping documents for export products.
Because of the war and politics, the amount of paperwork needed to ship anything to the USA was very difficult. It seemed no companies wanted to do that type of busy work but the advantage Hoshino had was his past experience in export records, so he began taking care the paperwork allowing Hoshino Gakki to start exporting again.
By 1950 all Hoshino operations were back in full swing, and they again began exporting musical products into the USA. Before World War II Hoshino had started shipping into the USA small quantities of products and had started some relationships with companies in the USA. Companies like National guitars, David Hanser, Grossman in New York, Cleveland and other companies no one can remember.
The very first export product that Mr. Yoshihiro remembers, as being really successful was the real solid tortoise shell picks that were made in Japan and exported. Most other companies made picks from nitrocellulose that simulated a tortoise shell look, but in Japan they actually were making the picks from turtles. These picks were very expensive but sold very well. The first shipment of picks to the USA was in 1951 to a company called B&J in New York. As soon as the deal was made, they went to the Trade Corporation under the auspices of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry in Tokyo and requested the necessary material. The material was sold to Hoshino, and the manufacture of the picks was started.
Hoshino expanded their exports from parts to musical instruments gradually. One of the problems facing manufacturers in exporting their products was that of lack of experience of the effect of weather and climate on the instruments in a foreign country. Wooden products are affected by humidity; however, nothing was being done to protect the instruments against this problem. Naturally there were many customer complaints concerning the problem. It took Hoshino a great deal of hard work over a twenty-year period to fully overcome this problem.
After the war, Hoshino Gakki Ten Inc. worked desperately to rebuild the trust in their products they had established in the 30 years prior to the war. In 1955, in their continued rebuilding effort, they purchased a 4620 square foot lot. It was on this site that they built a one-story wooden structure. It is the present location of the corporate office at 3-22 Shumokucho, Higashiku, Nagoya.
In 1951, Hoshino started to wholesale their musical instruments to retail stores throughout Japan. Following the success of their domestic business, they started exporting to the neighboring countries in Southeast Asia. By the late 1950s, they had expanded their exports all over the world including the United States, Europe, Asia and Africa.
In the process of expanding, they strived diligently to prevent their earlier customer complaints. Their efforts resulted in their gaining a great deal of customer trust and satisfaction. The company instituted a policy of a 100% inspection of each instrument prior to shipment. This was a new concept that had never before been done by any exporting company. The inspection plan was criticized by some as being a waste of time. But the efforts proved to be successful and greatly improved customer satisfaction. Hoshino’s long experience in recognizing and satisfying their customer’s needs was invaluable toward the growth of the company in the difficult post war period.
In the late 1950’s after recovering from the war damage, people regained their leisure time, and more time was being devoted to entertainment. As more time was invested in leisure activities, the desire for musical instruments increased. The Rockabilly added to the growing demands for musical instruments and in particular electric guitars. This movement had a major influence on the company’s growth.
Yoshihiro actually had nine brothers. Of the nine, three brothers took over control of Hoshino Gakki company. Junpei Hoshino was still traveling around the world looking for markets. The Hoshino’s mother’s name was Tama. Note the name on the Tama drums. Tama factory is owned and controlled by Hoshino, and they originally started making electric guitars.
Yoshitaro Hoshino, the founder died in January 1963. Prior to his death, his first son, Ryohei, who had been so supportive of his father, died in 1960. Yoshitaro’s supportive wife, Tama died in October 1959. For the Hoshino Gakki Ten Inc., it was now time for the second generation to replace the original family founders. At this time the position of president was assumed by Yoshitaro’s second son, Jumpei. His main focus was to develop new overseas markets. Jumpei, a graduate of Osaka University of Foreign Language, used his knowledge of English to aid him in his efforts.
As president of the company, he decided in 1962 to reopen their manufacturing plant for the production of electric guitars and guitar amplifiers. The plant was named Tama Seisakusho Inc. to honor the wife of Yoshitaro who had played such a very important role in the company’s growth. Yoshihiro, the fourth son of the founder, also a CA graduate took the position of President. A modern plant for the production of musical instruments was also built on a 1.4-acre lot purchased at 136 Ishihara, Minamiharayamacho, Owariasahi-shi. One of the items manufactured at this plant were drum sets under the brand name STAR. This has been a brand name familiar to foreign customers since 1965.
The first actual electric guitars that Hoshino produced were under the Star name. The catalog from 1957 states Spanish electric guitars. Color selection on these was black, or natural and they featured one or two pickups and basic controls. These were crude electric models, but this would lead the way to Hoshino getting into the electric guitar market.
Joe Hoshino, the son of the second brother, started working for the Hoshino family in 1960 Hoshino was purchasing guitars for around $2.00 from and selling them for around $2.50. By the early 1960s Hoshino was exporting musical products to many companies in the USA and these models were sold under any name that the jobber would ask for. A Company in Los angles California ҅European Craft was the only company that was caring the brand name Ibanez. Other companies used their own names on the models.
Yoshihiro Hoshino, the current president, who was leading this movement, recalls those times:
“When we restarted our export operation after the war, we were only concerned with delivery time. As our business continued to grow, we realized that we had to rethink the way we were doing business. It was then that the idea of an agency system came to me.
At that time, we were also handling sales of a few imported musical instruments. We bought the same items from many different manufacturers. To be competitive, they reduced their prices more than we ever anticipated. We learned a bitter lesson because there was no service after the sale and we could not be responsible.
We did not want to export our merchandise under the same circumstances, so we devised the agency concept and established a separate one in each country. The last country that we considered was the United States.”
Before the copy days, Hoshino was only making original guitar designs but by the early 1970’s the US Jobbers asked for Hoshino to make actual copies. Hoshino agreed and all copies that came in the USA were made by Hoshino’s sub factories. So, this answers one important question, all copy guitars in the USA were exported by Hoshino Gakki and made at the same factories as the Ibanez models? Actually, up until 1965 or 1967 Hoshino was the only company bringing any Japanese guitars into the United States.
In first days, that Hoshino guitars were coming to the United States people from the jobber companies would go to Japan, or the Hoshino people would visit the USA to discuss the actual models that the jobbers wanted and to talk about the details for the models and take orders. There were no fax machines, so the orders were usually forecasted for at least a six-month period to one year.
These guitars were made in small factories around Matsumoto area cost around $20.00 and they would take the orders to fill for Hoshino. Fuji-Gen Company business started around the late 1960’s and is still the main company that produces Ibanez guitars.
According to Yoshihiro, although there were 40 distributors established in America, each one was concerned with their own interest. The market was too large, and people tended not to think about the overall business. It was difficult for Hoshino to understand the circumstances and movement of the market in the United States. Because of this, as the orders were received, the goods were exported as requested.
Yoshihiro visited the United States in 1971 for the purpose of researching the market. He sought the advice of the president of a successful Japanese firm and was told, “success in the American market depends on you.”
Yoshihiro made the courageous decision to open his own company in the United States. By doing so, it was necessary that he stop supplying the 40 distributors that were distributing Hoshino products. He received many complaints and objections as a result of this action. He was criticized and told that it was a mistake to expand his business to the United States. He had, however, already made up his mind. He believed that the expansion into the world’s largest market would be the best for the American music lover as well as the company.