2026 Hironori Fukuda SP/AR

This 2026 Hironori Fukuda is a classical guitar from Osaka, Japan, with a spruce top and African rosewood back and sides – the same woods as the guitar that won him First Prize at the 2024 Antonio Marín Montero competition in Granada.

Hironori Fukuda and GSI

Our story with Hironori goes back to Granada in 2018, where he was one of the finalists in the competition; a year later he was back, and he won third prize at the 3rd International "Antonio Marín Montero" Guitar Building Competition. This guitar is virtually the same build as his winning 2024 guitar and features the same materials: an elegant spruce top covered in 3-dimensional cross-grain silk and bearclaw – absolutely stunning – and a lovely set of beautifully figured African rosewood for the back and sides.

Built the Traditional Spanish Way

Everything about Hironori's approach is traditional and Spanish. Material quality and selection matter enormously to him: his soundboards are always air-dried European spruce, and to let the wood's natural voice come through as much as possible, he uses no heat processing and no synthetic reinforcement. Hide glue holds the guitar together, and the finish is shellac, with pumice powder to fill the pores, applied as a French polish with a pad. Even the rosette and inlay woods keep their natural colors (no dyes), and nearly every step is done by hand, with very few power tools.

Bracing, Sides and an Architectural Bridge

Under the top, seven fans are arranged in the traditional way, and the middle five pass through a transverse brace set just in front of the bridge. The idea is to free up the vibrating area around the bridge as much as possible while also giving it structural stability. The sides are thinner than usual and reinforced with a series of thin spruce braces, once more aiming for a guitar that is light yet structurally sound. Hironori's aesthetic is elegant and subtle, with refined rosette detailing and tasteful inlay work throughout, and the bridge, with its squared ramps, has a bold, almost "architectural" look.

It has a rich variety of tonal colors – remarkable for a new guitar. Overall a superb instrument in every way, and we look forward to many more of Hironori's guitars!

Photos of this guitar taken during construction

An Early Love of Craft

From an early age, Hironori Fukuda loved working with his hands, taking up a variety of crafts and model building. He first played classical guitar at university in Kyoto, where he joined the university guitar club. He was passionate about playing, but thanks to his lifelong love of craftwork, it wasn't long before his attention turned to how guitars are made.

The Santos Hernández Revelation

As soon as Hironori began gathering materials and researching construction techniques, he discovered how hard it was to find good-quality tonewoods, especially those of the rosewood family. Then, in 1998, he attended a concert where the guitarist played a 1933 Santos Hernández made of spruce and maple. Hironori was deeply impressed by its wonderful sound, and the experience inspired him to build a guitar without rosewood. He spent three years studying lutherie from textbooks while refining his woodworking skills, and in late 2001 he completed his first guitar: a Santos Hernández model with a spruce top and maple back and sides.

Lessons from Torres, Santos and Romanillos

Since then, Hironori has had the opportunity to examine several important vintage instruments by makers such as Antonio de Torres and Santos Hernández, while gaining experience in building, repairing, and restoring guitars. In 2007, he attended the famous summer course given by José Romanillos. It had a profound influence on his approach, inspiring him to build guitars with great color, a beautiful, singing melodic voice, and many of the other charming qualities he found in the old Spanish instruments.

First Prize in Granada

Hironori first came to the Antonio Marín Montero Guitar Making Competition in Granada, Spain, in 2018, when he reached the finals. He returned the following year and won third prize at the 3rd edition of the competition in 2019, and in 2024 he came back once more and took First Prize for classical guitar at the seventh Antonio Marín Montero Guitar Making Competition. He lives and works in Osaka, Japan, and GSI is his exclusive dealer in the USA.