Musical Innovators gets in contact with Makoto Iwasa to start a collaboration in which ACOUHYB will get to Japan.
Enschu Musical Instruments Production Inc. is a new piano manufacture and trade company born in western Shizuoka, the center of musical instrument production in Japan. It works with advanced and precise piano manufacturing techniques and trade to provide import and export services supporting piano lovers worldwide.
I talked to Makoto Iwasa, the owner of the brand and an experienced salesperson. (It is the first time he is interviewed!) He has contacts in China, Japan and America and he can talk Chinese, Japanese and English. He and Sergey met 8 years ago at the musical instrument fair in Frankfurt am Main, and they talked about the possibility of bringing pianos from Japan to Spain from the factory where Makoto worked then as a manager. Some years later, Sergey contacted Makoto to offer him the current collaboration.
After this cooperation, the Enschu piano factory will produce ACOUHYB-4 pianos, with 4 strings per note –the second patent registered on ACOUHYB–. That way, Musical Innovators will promote the Enschu product, and Enschu will produce the new ACOUHYB patent and help with donations to support the organization of concerts and events. Apart from that, both enterprises will be able to bring their projects to other countries.
Makoto explains the situation in Japan and China: “There’s a lot of people living in Japan, and that is why it is good to extend ACOUHYB there. Maybe the idea of changing piano tuning is not 100% new, but their product in particular is new. Even if it is not easy to sell pianos in Japan, because people buy less and less, we will try! About China, we may get there, but there are things that will be more difficult, as a lot of people have their own brands. But there are possibilities.” In return, Musical Innovators will help Makoto get contacts in Europe, USA and other countries.
Even though they work together, Makoto has not been able to listen to a ACOUHYB piano live: “I just heard it by recording. I just liked it better than other pianos, and I have a friend who plays the piano and told me it sounded wonderful. However, I would like to go to Europe to hear it live, when I have less work.”
Then, Makoto explained to me about his career: “I had been in a piano factory before. First, I had to do the documents work, but they offered me to do the sales when they saw I could speak Chinese and English. At that time I was selling pianos which were 100% made in China. Because of that, I had a lot of trouble, as customers wanted an actual Japanese company that they could trust which. That is why I made my own company. Having my own factory, with products actually made in Japan, I can control the quality of the products myself.”
Moreover, why would a salesman want to make specifically musical products? “When you are tired or depressed and listen to music, there is something here that releases you, and that’s the reason I chose music. To help people. I had been in Cambodia and other places before being in the piano factory, and I want to give the poor kids I saw there the chance to play a piano, to get in touch with music. For example, one of my main goals is Africa. There, I make an offer: if they buy thirty pianos, I donate one to put in a school or in any place where kids who can’t afford one can play it. There are children that can’t even touch a piano! So, yes, my project is not just earning money but to give everyone a chance to listen or play music. That can help them a lot. Music releases, it heals people.”