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Hideaki (and I have also seen him called Honten?) Urabe founded Urabe Ukuleles and Guitars in Kobe Japan in 1997 after having been making instruments for other companies, starting with Guyatone, since 1967. He was joined by his son Naohiro in this venture in 2001. In addition to making Ukuleles and Guitars; they also make Buddhist altar fittings. The website is in Japanese so I could be mistranslating? Back to the Ukuleles and they make Sopranos, Concerts, Tenors, Super Sopranos (Concert and Tenor scale) and even a Soprano scale Super Sopranino? (I have seen a Guitalele too). On the headstock they put a square, triangle and circle as a logo. Apart from his son, he has also taken on a number of other apprentices over the years who have gone on to start up workshops and brands of their own, people like Hidemaru Tsurezure and Himeta Chiharu As Hidemaru Tsurezure worked for Urabe Strings for 10 years before starting his own workshop I'm not sure Aprentice is the right term; more like employee? And I don't know how many work there at any one time but there does seem to be a constant stream of them, and given the current output, (about 120 a year), so I think this is more a factory, albeit a very good one, than a workshop.
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