2010 Masaki Sakurai "Maestro RF" SP/CSAR

This 2010 Masaki Sakurai “Maestro RF” is a classical guitar with a spruce top and CSA rosewood back and sides, made in Tokyo, Japan, its finish lightly buffed to a slight matte look.

Sakurai’s “Maestro RF”

“RF” stands for raised fingerboard, which Sakurai designed to give easier access to the upper registers. Two ebony reinforcing strips in the back of the neck make a very accurate set-up possible – a low, easy action without buzzing – and the stiffer neck improves sustain as well. The bridge shape and the head design are among the elements Sakurai designed himself. The result is a very tasteful, yet modern instrument.

Sound and Condition

Clear and clean, the spruce top still has the depth and warmth of its cedar counterpart, and there is plenty of power for any concert, ensemble playing included. Although used, it is in excellent condition; the finish appears to have been lightly buffed, which gives it a slight matte look. The label – “Masaki Sakurai, Kohno Guitar Manufacturing” – gives the model, “Maestro-R.F”, and the year 2010, and is signed by Sakurai.

Video

The Bassett Bros play Einaudi’s “Nuvole Bianche” on two 2010 Sakurai “Maestro RF” guitars in the video above.

Videos and Further Reading

In the videos above, a documentary portrays Masaki Sakurai at work, and Shin-ichi Fukuda plays Bach on one of his guitars (“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”.