The Yamaha Corporation is a huge company that produces everything from musical instrument to motorcycles. Started in 1897, the company is named for its founder Torukasu Yamaha, who originally made and fixed organs. He had been repairing and building organs for 10 years prior to incorporating the company. Yamaha’s organs were some of the most popular in Japan, and he exported 78 of them in the company’s first year.
Back then the company was called Nippon Gakki, or “Japan Muscial Instruments.” It would not be known as Yamaha until several years later. By then, Yamaha was making grand pianos as well as organs.
From building pianos, Yamaha the company gained knowledge of woodworking. In 1903, Yamaha used the expertise it had gained in woodworking to expand its brand to include furniture. That was the first of many successful moves into new markets.
In 1917, Torukasu Yamaha died, and Chiyomaru Amano took over as president of the company. He continued to diversify the Yamaha brand. In 1922, the Yamaha Corporation began producing phonographs－a precursor to the record player. The company took sound quality very seriously, and in 1930 it built the world’s first room dedicated to researching acoustics.
Some 25 years after its inception, Yamaha was a well-known brand. It continued to be innovative in organ design and throughout the 1930s consistently came out with popular organs. However, because of the Second World War, the 1940s were tough years for Yamaha.
It was during the mid-1950s, under the leadership of Genichi Kawakami, that the brand rebounded and became the powerhouse it is today. Kawakami was the grandson of the last President and knew the company well. He did two things which ensured that Yamaha would become an internationally recognized name. First, Kawakami aggressively pursued American and European markets. He even opened a plant in Mexico to feed the North American market.
The second thing he did was the most surprising of all. Kawakami moved Yamaha into the motorcycle business. Just like the move from pianos to furniture, the move into motorcycles utilized existing expertise in one area to break into another. This time Yamaha used the metal-working knowledge it gained in making phonographs to build motorcycles. Motorcycles are still a cornerstone of Yamaha’s business.
Today, the Yamaha name is on countless products, and the company has revenues in the billions. However, Yamaha’s logo. Which consists of interlocking tuning forks, will always remind us of the name’s humble origins.
Vocaburary
1.Organ : 管風琴, 風琴
2.Grang piano : 平臺式鋼琴, 大鋼琴
3.Plant : 此文章之意為”工廠”
4.Acoustics : 音響效果, 音質
5.Tuning fork : 調音叉
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