Have you heard of the brand "Splendor"?

Hello!

This is Koyamauchi from TCGAKKI Musical Instrument Repair.

This may come as a surprise, but please take a look at this newspaper.

This is a headline from the Ibaraki Shimbun published on December 24, 1965.

Hitachi Musical Instrument Manufacturing Co., Ltd., featured in this article, was based in Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture, and was founded in March 1965.

Apparently, 13 employees were making guitars at the factory.

In January of 1965, The Ventures visited Japan, and electric guitars were becoming wildly popular, but since The Beatles didn’t visit until 1966, this event took place even earlier.

This means they were manufacturing guitars in Japan before the Beatles’ visit.

The guitars produced at Hitachi Musical Instrument Manufacturing were sold under the brand name “Splendor.”

Today, as a “Bizarre/Japan Vintage” brand,.

Actually, this “Splendor” brand has an inseparable connection with our store, TCGAKKI.

As we’ve previously mentioned on the TCGAKKI YouTube channel, Mitsuharu Kurosawa, President of Hitachi Musical Instrument Manufacturing Co., Ltd., is also the chairman of TCGAKKI!

After working in various businesses, including musical instrument manufacturing, he founded “The Used Instrument Shop” (now TCGAKKI) in 1989.

Splendor was already producing Fender copies back then.

Fender replicas are famous for being released by companies like Greco, Tokai, and Fernandes in the 1970s, but Splendor was actually making them even before that.

In other words, Splendor can be called “Japan’s first Fender clone”!!

In addition to models made at Hitachi’s in-house factory, the Splendor brand offers a wide variety of acoustic guitars, including those manufactured by Kawai Musical Instruments and other factories.

We’ve also featured Splendor’s history on the TCGAKKI YouTube channel!

We’ve also recently renovated our in-store “Splendor Special Exhibition Corner”!

This time, we’ve displayed actual newspaper articles from that era alongside a collection of guitars that have “returned home” to us, so please be sure to check them out when you visit the store.

This was Koyamauchi!