2011 Masaki Sakurai "Maestro RF" CD/CSAR

This 2011 Masaki Sakurai “Maestro RF” is a classical guitar with a cedar top and CSA rosewood back and sides, made in Tokyo, Japan; Sean Mulholland plays a Sakurai “Maestro RF” in the video above.

A Cedar-Top “Maestro RF”

The raised fingerboard (“RF”) makes the upper registers much easier to reach. Thanks to the double ebony strips that reinforce the back of the neck, the set-up can be very accurate, with a low, easy action and no buzzing; the stiffer neck adds sustain too. Sakurai designed many of its details himself, including the shape of the bridge and the head.

Sound and Label

The cedar top has a deep, open sound while keeping the clarity and definition of its spruce counterpart. It has plenty of power for any concert situation, ensemble playing included. Its “Masaki Sakurai” label from Kohno Guitar Manufacturing reads Model “Maestro-R.F”, 2011, and carries his signature.

In the Video Above

Sean Mulholland plays his “3 Meditations” on a Sakurai “Maestro RF”.

Read and Watch More

The videos above are a documentary on Masaki Sakurai and his workshop, and “The Luthier and the Guitarist”, in which Shin-ichi Fukuda plays Bach on a guitar made by Sakurai. For more on Japanese guitar making, see Orfeo No. 15, “The Guitar in Japan”: it can be read online and is included in the print edition “Orfeo Magazine, 11-15”.

Orfeo No. 15: The Guitar in Japan

Orfeo Magazine, 11-15 (print edition)

Masaru Kohno (1926–1998)

Kohno, Sakurai & Kimishima are three generations of one Tokyo guitar-making family. Masaru Kohno – Japan’s most important classical guitar maker, and one of the best worldwide – was born in 1926 in Mito City. In 1960 he traveled to Spain and apprenticed for six months with Arcángel Fernández in Madrid; back in Tokyo he established his own workshop, and in 1967 he was awarded the Gold Medal at an international guitar-building competition in Belgium, judged among others by Ignacio Fleta, Robert Bouchet, Joaquín Rodrigo and Alirio Díaz. Julian Bream, Oscar Ghiglia and Sharon Isbin are among the many players of world renown who have used Kohno guitars.

Masaki Sakurai (1944–2025)

Born in Tokyo on May 10, 1944, Masaki Sakurai joined the workshop of his uncle, Masaru Kohno, in 1966. Among many other accomplishments, in 1988 he was awarded First Prize at the 4th International Guitar Making Competition in Paris, France. Mr. Kohno passed away in 1998, and the workshop was taken over by Sakurai, who carried on its legacy under the name Sakurai-Kohno. The guitars built since he took over have maintained the high levels of quality, precision craftsmanship, meticulous attention to detail and beauty of tone that have made Kohno guitars world renowned. Masaki Sakurai passed away in 2025 at the age of 81 (read our tribute).

So Kimishima (born 1983)

So Kimishima, Masaru Kohno’s grandson, studied at the Musashi Institute of Technology in Tokyo and joined the family workshop, where since 2007 he has worked and trained with his uncle, the great Masaki Sakurai. His guitars are based largely on the sound of Masaru Kohno’s guitars from the 1950s and 1960s, with design ideas and techniques learned from Sakurai, and he uses different bracing designs according to the tonewood of each top. In 2021 he announced his own model, the “Stella”, followed by his flagship “Sol” and its sister model “Luna”.