2019 Masaki Sakurai "Special" SP/CSAR

This 2019 Masaki Sakurai “Special” is a classical guitar with a spruce top and CSA rosewood back and sides, made in Tokyo, Japan; Dmitry Zagumennikov plays Rodrigo on a 2019 “Special” in the video above.

About the “Special”

Sakurai’s “Special” goes a step beyond the “Concert-J”, with finer detailing in the purfling and rosette and a more select choice of woods. Thick back and sides and a neck reinforced with two ebony strips make it very stable – a good guitar for travel. A beautiful, classic design, perfectly executed: this guitar shows both the influence of Masaru Kohno, with whom Sakurai learned his craft, and Sakurai’s own personality.

Playing It

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. The spruce top has a clear, clean sound while keeping the depth and warmth of its cedar counterpart. It has plenty of power for any concert situation, ensemble playing included.

About the Label

Its “Masaki Sakurai” label from Kohno Guitar Manufacturing reads Model “Special”, 2019, and carries his signature. A top-quality concert instrument we can recommend to anyone.

In the Video Above

Dmitry Zagumennikov plays Joaquín Rodrigo’s “Passacaglia” on a 2019 Masaki Sakurai “Special”.

Read and Watch More

Watch Masaki Sakurai at work in the documentary above, and hear Shin-ichi Fukuda play Bach on one of his guitars in “The Luthier and the Guitarist”. The guitar makers of Japan are the subject of Orfeo Magazine No. 15 – read the issue online, or find it in the print edition that collects issues 11 to 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”.