KIWAYA

In 1957, when Ryouji was 26 years old, he joined KIWAYA, and got married to Kitaroh's daughter.
He led KIWAYA's transition to become a musical instrument company.
Then, the boom of "Hawaiian music″ swept all over Japan.
The leaders of "Hawaiian music″ were the "Haida brothers″ ,Yukihiko Haida and Katsuhiko Haida.

They were Japanese-Americans from Hawaii, who were very popular in Japan as musicians before World War II.
Before World War II, Hawaiian music meant Jazz, ragtime, American music, etc, in Japan. Yukihiko Haida especially is called "The father of light music in Japan″.

The ukulele was fashionable, so a lot of companies made various ukuleles.
For example, TOSHIBA, a world leader in high technology and electronics today, made ukuleles in those days in Japan.
The "Luna″ukulele that was made by KAMANO GAKKI was the best ukulele in Japan in 1950's.
Ryouji loved ukulele, so his dream was for KIWAYA to have its own brand of ukulele.

In 1957, Ryouji produced KIWAYA's first brand ukulele, the name "Famous″.
Ryouji named this ukulele with the dream for it to be famous.
However, the times were about to change.
When the "Famous″ ukulele was born, the boom of Hawaiian music was starting to fade.
It meant the beginning of the glacial period of the ukulele ...

When KIWAYA's "Famous″ brand ukulele began to sell, the rockabilly was gradually gaining power.
After Elvis Presley was introduced in Japan, Japan was flooded with ROCK AND ROLL music.
The era of the electric guitar had come.
As Hawaiian music was declining, the sales of ukulele were falling, too.

Most of ukulele wholesalers and makers stopped making ukuleles, and transitioned from the ukulele business to another business and some of them went bankrupt. At last, the production of the "Luna″ukulele stopped and it disappeared from the market. After rockabilly, the era changed from "Elvis″ to "The Beatles″. People did not need the ukulele any longer.
They needed the guitar. In spite of this situation, Ryouji never gave up. He loved the ukulele very much.
"I never want to abandon such a pretty musical instrument″

Ryouji made efforts to keep the ukulele alive in Japan.
He went to some Hawaiian music players (Yukihiko Haida, Ginji Yamaguchi,
both powerful Hawaiian music players) in order to improve the ukulele, and he sold them to many little ukulele clubs all over Japan.

Ryouji also went to some local authorities in order to propose music education programs using ukulele.
He made "mini-size guitars″ by using "baritone ukulele″ body and he sold them.
Ryouji found a good partner, named Naohnori Watanabe. He is a leader of the "Nihon Ukulele School″.

Ryouji sold ukuleles, and Naohnori Watanabe taught ukulele, so, both of them worked together cooperatively.
Ryouji and Naohnori Watanabe have kept the ukulele culture in Japan alive.

Through Ryouji's steady efforts, the "Famous ukulele″ had existed as the only ukulele in the market in Japan.
In 1993, Ryouji bought the trademark of the "LUNA″ and he started to sell the "LUNA″ ukulele by KIWAYA.
Moreover Ryouji started to sell the "NAKANISHI″ Ukulele, which is a high quality ukulele, made by Seiichi Nakanishi, an excellent ukulele craftsman.
The NAKANISHI ukulele is said to be as good as the MARTIN ukulele.

In 1990's, the ukulele's sounds were heard through commercial films on TV.
Some musicians in Japan became interested in the ukulele.
The main stream was not Hawaiian music but Jazz, standard, and pops.
This originated from Herb Ohta（Ohta-san）, a jazz ukulele player.

So the boom of "ukulele″ began.
While the TV program "how to play ukulele″ was on the air, (the lecturer was Boo Takagi, a member of the famous comical band "The Drifters″ in Japan.) the sales of Ukulele by KIWAYA climbed higher than ever before. Most people equated “ukulele” with the “Famous” brand.

In 2002, Ryouji became the chairman of KIWAYA. He assigned Kyoko Hara, his oldest daughter, to be the president of KIWAYA.

The new president Kyoko Hara had various plans.
She expanded the KIWAYA Ukulele School, which now has 40 classes, and about 300 students.

She opened the KIWAYA website, started the Ukulele contest, founded the KIWAYA Ukulele Museum "RAKU″ one after another.

She has cooperated with new generation's ukulele craftsmen, and is releasing various ukuleles now. She has been leading KIWAYA to be a powerful, specialized ukulele company. And now Kyoko plans to advance the KIWAYA ukulele to the U.S. market.
(KIWAYA USA was established in 2006.)

Now, Ryouji Okamoto works on musical education programs using the ukulele for children. An elementary school near KIWAYA adopted his proposal to give optional lessons on Saturday, and it is ongoing.
His dream is that a lot of children will enjoy playing the ukulele all over the world.