THE HISTORY OF YAMAHA MOTORS .

Yamaha's history goes back over a hundred years to 1887 when Torakusu Yamaha founded the company, which began producing reed organs. The Yamaha Corporation in Japan (then Nippon Gakki Co., Ltd.) has grown to become the world's largest manufacturer of a full line of musical instruments, and a leading producer of audio/visual products, semiconductors and other computer related products, sporting goods, home appliances and furniture, specialty metals, machine tools, and industrial robots.The Yamaha Motor Corporation, Ltd., begun on July 1, 1955, is a major part of the entire Yamaha group, but is a separately managed business entity from the Yamaha Corporation. The Yamaha Motor Corporation is the second largest manufacturer of motorcycles in the world. Yamaha Motor Corporation owns its wholly-owned subsidiary in the U.S. called Yamaha Motor Corporation, USA, that is handling not only motorcycles, but also snow mobiles, golf carts, outboard engines, and water vehicles, under the brand name of Yamaha as well.In 1954 production of the first motorcycles began, a simple 125cc single-cylinder two-stroke. It was a copy of the German DKW design, which the British BSA Company had also copied in the post-war era and manufactured as the Bantam.Yamaha began over one hundred years ago when a young entrepreneur named Torakusu Yamaha set out to craft a high-quality reed organ. Before long, the company he founded had not only gone on to manufacture Japan's first piano, it had also gained recognition abroad with a Yamaha piano and organ being awarded an Honorary Grand Prize at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.


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