Are Reconditioned Yamaha Pianos from Schools or Private Homes?

I learned a new Japanese word today. Hojin!

Customers sometimes ask us if our pianos have come from music schools, universities, or other settings where a piano might be neglected, vandalised, or played 12 hours per day by the next Rachmaninov.

We always reassure our customers that our pianos come from private family homes across Japan which are then collected, repaired, reconditioned, and sent to us as part of a bulk order of 16 pianos per shipping container.

Today, a customer really wanted to know if we could find out the history of a particular piano that we were selling. I said that I would pass on the request to Japan and see what came back. I expected a general response that would not reveal any specific details of the previous owners, and that’s what we go. Here is the full response for your interest:

“Thanks for your question — it’s a very valid one, and I’m glad you asked. We do in fact have access to records indicating whether each piano was previously owned by an individual (private household) or a public organization (known in Japan as a hōjin, such as a kindergarten, tuning school, or other institution). Whenever I select pianos for your orders, I always check this background information and do my best to avoid any units previously owned by hōjin entities. That said, due to privacy regulations here, we are not permitted to disclose detailed information about previous owners to other parties. Regarding the piano you asked about — you can rest assured that this piano was not purchased from a hōjin. It came from a private owner. Thanks again for your attention to quality — it really makes a difference. Best regards,”

So you can see it is never possible to prove the source of any specific piano from Japan. No supplier is offering that proof.

Personally Selected

Occasionally, you will see piano shops selling reconditioned Yamaha pianos with the claim that they are “personally selected” to ensure quality and that they haven’t been in a Hojin. As far as I know, no UK piano shop is personally selecting their Yamaha pianos from Japan. We all follow the same process of choosing our favourite pianos off a large supplier spreadsheet.

Trust

You can see that my “man in Japan” wasn’t able to offer any proof. That means he could have been lying to me. So we operate on trust. I’ve ordered hundreds of containers full of Yamaha pianos from Japan since 2003 and I learn about how different suppliers operate – which ones I can trust, which ones pay attention to detail, who does the best work, who cuts corners, etc.

It comes down to trust. I have no choice but to trust my suppliers but I choose my suppliers carefully. You have no choice but to trust whichever piano shop you buy from but you can choose which shop to buy from carefully based on trust, reputation, etc.