2026 Masaki Sakurai "Special" SP/AR

This 2026 Masaki Sakurai “Special” is a new classical guitar with a spruce top and African rosewood back and sides, made in Tokyo, Japan – completed in Sakurai’s workshop under the supervision of So Kimishima.

From Sakurai’s Workshop, 2026

Masaki Sakurai passed away in 2025. So Kimishima – Masaru Kohno’s grandson, who trained with Sakurai from 2007 onward – oversaw the completion of this guitar in the workshop, and it carries the workshop’s “Masaki Sakurai” label for the “Special” model, dated 2026.

About the “Special”

In Sakurai’s range, the “Special” ranks above the “Concert-J” classical guitar: the purfling and rosette are more refined and the woods more carefully chosen. African rosewood is used here for the back and sides. The back and sides are thick and the neck is reinforced with a pair of ebony strips, which make it very stable – a good guitar to travel with.

Spruce Top and Mosaic Rosette

The photos show a fine mosaic rosette with matching purfling around the top, a tie block framed in bone with rosewood inlays, and a rosewood head veneer with a slender, multicolored center stripe; on the back, a straight-grained set of African rosewood is joined by a fine center strip. The design is classic and beautifully executed, as on every guitar from this workshop.

Sound and Playability

With its spruce top, the voice is clear and clean, yet it has the depth and warmth of its cedar counterpart. The ebony-reinforced neck stays stiff for better sustain and makes an accurate set-up possible, so the action is low and easy with no buzzing, and the guitar has the power for any concert, solo or in an ensemble. A top-quality concert instrument we can recommend to anyone.

Read and Watch More

The first video above is a documentary about Masaki Sakurai; in the second, “The Luthier and the Guitarist”, Shin-ichi Fukuda plays Bach on a Sakurai guitar. Orfeo Magazine No. 15 tells the story of the guitar in Japan – read it online, or get the print edition with 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”.