The Yamaha brand trademark, YAMAHA, comes from the name of our founder Torakusu Yamaha who pioneered the production of Western musical instruments in Japan. Born to a family of a Kishu Tokugawa (today’s Wakayama Prefecture) clansman, Torakusu was captivated by Western science and technology from early on. Fascinated by the watches that were gaining popularity in Osaka at the time, he took up watchmaking, studying business along the way. Over time, Torakusu began repairing medical equipment and was invited to visit a hospital in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture.

On one occasion, the principal of Hamamatsu’s Jinjo elementary school (currently Motoshiro Elementary school) asked him if he would try to repair a reed organ. He agreed and was able to repair it successfully, marking the first step toward the birth of the Yamaha brand. Recognizing its business potential, while repairing the organ, Torakusu created a blueprint for the inside of the organ, later creating his own prototype organ. To deliver it to the then Music Institute (today’s Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music), Torakusu slung his creation over his shoulder on a carrying pole and crossed the mountains of Hakone. This historic trek was later immortalized as a bas-relief.

The organ, however, was criticized harshly for its poor tuning. Undaunted, and starting from zero, Torakusu began studying music theory and tuning. After four months of seemingly endless struggles from early morning to late at night, he was finally able to complete the organ. It is easy to see how he came up with the concept of the tuning fork mark, inspired by the difficult experience of studying tuning while holding a tuning fork in his hand.

In 1898, one year after the establishment of Nippon Gakki Co., Ltd., forerunner of today’s Yamaha Corporation, the Company decided to use a tuning fork as the corporate mark, and a design featuring a “Chinese phoenix holding a tuning fork in its mouth” as the trademark. After undergoing a variety of changes paralleling the growth of the Company, the tuning fork mark and the Yamaha Logo was finally standardized.

A tuning fork is a tool for tuning musical instruments. It was invented by a trumpet player named John Shore (1662-1751). The tuning fork is composed of a handle attached to the center of a U-shaped steel rod. By striking the rod, sound is created, and the frequency of the resulting vibrations per second is used as a standard for tuning a musical instrument. The three tuning forks of the Yamaha Logo represent the cooperative relationship that links the three pillars of our business — technology, production, and sales. They also evoke the robust vitality that has forged our reputation for sound and music the world over, a territory signified by the enclosing circle. The mark also symbolizes the three essential musical elements: melody, harmony, and rhythm.

The biggest difference is that logo of Yamaha Corporation is colored in violet, its corporate color, while that Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd, its sister company, uses red.

Yamaha Corporation uses a Yamaha Logomark with the tips of the tuning forks contained within a circle, and features “YAMAHA” printed in an asymmetric font, with an “M” with a middle column shorter than the outer legs, while that of Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd has the tips of the tuning forks in Yamaha Logo extended outside a circle, and uses symmetrical font, with an “M” of all the legs same size.