s yairi s. yairi started his own factory back in 1932 ( 1938), after leaving suzuki violin along with kazuo yairi's father, giichi.. who started the current k. yairi business in 1935. kazuo took it over sometime in the mid 1960's (the most given year is 1965). sadao didn't see his first classical or "gut" guitar until 1940 and had only made steel string flat top models. it wasn't until the early 1960's that he finally began producing the "gut" guitars. guitars with the logo at the bottom est. 1938 are not original s. yairi but some reissue models based on his old ones.. note hiroshi name (sadao's son).. however, there were some issues with those that were made in outside japan, that they were cheaply made and inferior. only the high end models were made in japan. i'm currently trying to find out if hiroshi has passed on, as i've heard rumors that he did and some "business" bought the rights to continue to make this with the s.yairi brand. as to the dates 1932, vs 1938 as years for starting, obviously if hiroshi made these, the 1930's date is not really correct since he would have been 3 years old at that time. all of the real sadao (or s.yairi) models i've seen have 1932 as the date he began. also, excerpts from an actual interview in the mid 1970's with sadao he states he began in 1932 after leaving suzuki. i'm thinking that maybe the 1938 date may be eitiher a typo, or it is possible that he mentioned that year because early on he had to move his factory and start over. you can tell the original s. yairi, from the reissues by the shape of the "s". left is a photo's of what a 1980 s.yairi logo (model 810) looks like along with it's label (below) [source and photos: yl , email 4/8/2009] dating s yairi guitars models that are around have the date of manufacture stamped on the sound hole label (see example below) s yairi resources http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/yairi http://yairiguitars.spaces.live.com/ alvarez and alvarez yairi - info place - yahoo group s yairi catalogs various 1970 - 1982 http://www.t-shiga.com/sub7-5-1.htm imported to us by philadelphia music co of limmerick, pennsylvania. early sales literature called the brand syairi. vintage guitar magazine price guide] forum http://www.delcamp.net/forum/en/viewtopic.phpf=11&t=19419 http://www.delcamp.net/forum/en/viewtopic.phpf=11&t=20554 s yairi handmade label image courtesy of rod allsopp, melbourne australia this label below was sent to me by devlin english who " owned this guitar as a boy and it was donated to goodwill at the death of my father. it ended up on the west coast again in a goodwill and was auctioned off again in september of 2015. it is a handmade example and the lable is done by hand and reads " made by my hand for a guitar lover with great skill and care june 1967 sadao yairi". you see my father put the roof on his factory as the roof was manufactured by goodyear.i would love to have it back in my posession so please be on the look out. thelabeltransaltionis "for a guitar lover i elaborately made this june 1966 sadao yairi"" [source: email 29/12/2015] if anyone ever comes across this item i will be happy to connect you with devlin.