Yasuma

K Yasuma & Co.
Kimihiko Yasuma started making Guitars in Nagoya in 1948.

In 1950 he founded K. Yasuma Gakki and was making Guitars branded New Ance, (and yes it was supposed to be a pun on nuance). New Ance was also used on the headstock, certainly of some Tiple Ukuleles, maybe the others too, along with the K Yasuma & Co. logo, (why it was used on some but not all I don't know?). In 1960 the firm was incorporated and became K. Yasuma & Co. (For some reason I can't translate, they may also have made instruments branded T Yasuma between 1953 and 1970?) It appears that the firm still existed until 2016 in some guise though I haven't seen any instrument by them in this millennium, (possibly because they make acoustic Guitars for Yamaha? They certainly have in the past).

When K. Yasuma & Co. were making instruments they made Guitars, Mandolins, Ukuleles and Tiple Ukuleles that were very good copies of Martin instruments. So good in fact that Martin won a court case for copyright infringement against them and had a lot of the K. Yasuma & Co. instruments in the US destroyed. The company did manage to carry on after the lawsuit, making instrument that looked less like Martins but I don't know when the last Yasuma branded instruments were made?