2022 So Kimishima "Stella Classic" SP/IN

This 2022 So Kimishima “Stella Classic” is a classical guitar with a spruce top and Indian rosewood back and sides, made in Tokyo, Japan; Pardy Minassian plays it in the video above.

The “Stella”

The “Stella” is the model So Kimishima – Masaru Kohno’s grandson, and a pupil of Masaki Sakurai since 2007 – announced in 2021 as his own. Its sound goes back above all to Masaru Kohno’s guitars of the 1950s and 1960s, and its design draws on what Kimishima learned from Sakurai. With a spruce top, the model is called the “Stella Classic”, as the label says.

The Bracing

Unlike the other models of the workshop, it has no single bracing pattern – Kimishima adapts the bracing to each tonewood, so that the top’s own character comes through. 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. Its spruce top sounds clear and clean, with the depth and warmth one might expect from cedar. Whether solo or in an ensemble, it has all the power a concert asks for.

Label

Kimishima signed the label, which reads Model “Stella Classic”, 2022. A very charming concert guitar, and one we can recommend without reservation.

In the Video Above

Pardy Minassian plays the Armenian lullaby “Ari im Sokhak” on this guitar.

Read and Watch More

In the video above, Shin-ichi Fukuda plays Bach on a guitar made by Masaki Sakurai, Kimishima’s teacher (“The Luthier and the Guitarist”). Japan’s guitar makers – Kohno and Sakurai among them – fill Orfeo Magazine No. 15; the issue is free to read online and is part of the printed “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”.