Kiwaya

The next several posts will introduce different Japanese ukulele brands. These postings will present a few challenges. Describing something that makes noise is difficult when the noise itself is absent. Let's give it a bash and see what happens.

While contemplating which Japanese brand of ukulele to introduce after Shimo Guitars, Kiwaya kept re-emerging.

Kiwaya itself is a small ukulele shop in a historic neighborhood of Tokyo. The ukulele shop occupies part of the ground floor of a building down a small side street several blocks from the nearest subway stations. The map on their website suggests getting off at the Inarimae Station on the Ginza Line. That was where I got off on the way there. It was a pretty straightforward walk. When heading home afterwards, I needed to get a different train, so a 15-minute maze journey followed.

If you go into the shop, you'll find the insides to be surprisingly small--but, let's be honest, how many ukulele shops of any scale are there in most cities? Tokyo does have several. There are a few cases containing new and use ukuleles and some counters and shelves with all sorts of ukulele CD, accessories, tools, and paraphanalia. For books and music scores, there are probably better places to go. Kiwaya, however, is more than what meets the eye. Inside their shop, there is very little clue to other goings-on. And I am not talking about their ukulele school that occupies the third and fourth floor of the same building, nor the small ukulele museum on the fourth floor either.

You won't find any ukuleles labelled with the Kiwaya brand, but there are lots of ukulele's that have Kiwaya to thank for their existance.

Like in the West, ukuleles have had ups and downs in their fortunes in Japan as well. In the late 1950s, there was a huge Hawaiian boom in Japan. Ukulele music was extremely popular then. Even in the 1960s and 1970s, grocery stores would pipe in Hawaiian background music. Several brand made their appearance and fortunes in the boom years. Famous and Luna are two Japanese brands that were particularly well known. Grandfathers of Hawaiian and ukulele music in Japan like Haita Yukihiko and Yamaguchi Ginji help boost Famous sales.

Then came Elvis Prestly...and the Beatles and other kinds of Western popular music. Luna bit the dust. Famous no longer was famous, though kept alive by Kiwaya. Dispair ruled the land. A dark evil descended....that's a bit over-dramatic. Suffice it to say that the Hawaiian boom was no more and the ukulele in Japan was headed for a nadir. (If memory serves, it was about this time also that Kamaka became the only remaining ukulele maker surviving in the US also.)

In the early 1990s, the light began to shine again. Interest in the ukulele was renewed. Kiwaya can probably be given credit for being behind Famous during the dark days and keeping it alive until the present hey-day. They brought Luna back to life and they have since been involved in tying up other makers to create new products.

I will start to look at some of these specific brands in the next several posts. However, if you would like to a feel for some of the Kiwaya-related brands before the journey begins, you can look at their online catalogue. Even if you can't read the Japanese, you can see what each instrument looks like. Prices are in yen, indicated by the y with the double crossbar. US$1=115yen more or less.