The Pearl Corporation was founded by Katsumi Yanagisawa, who began manufacturing music stands in Tokyo, Japan on April 2, 1946. In 1950 Katsumi shifted his focus to the manufacturing of drums and named his company "Pearl Industry, Ltd." Their most recent series of drums are the Reference By 1953 the company’s name had changed to "Pearl Musical Instrument Company," and manufacturing had expanded to include drum kits, marching drums, timpani, Latin percussion instruments, cymbals, stands, and accessories. Katsumi’s eldest son, Mitsuo, joined Pearl in 1957 and formed a division to export Pearl products worldwide. To meet increasing worldwide demand for drum kits following the advent of Rock and Roll, Pearl built a 15,000 sq. foot factory in Chiba, Japan in 1961. These kits were inexpensive and bore the brand name of the distributor. In 1965 Mitsuo formulated a long-range plan to bring Pearl to the forefront of the percussion industry. Under this plan, Pearl would 1) develop new products with quality equal to or better than products offered by established brand name companies; 2) install the latest automated machinery in the Chiba factory to increase production; 3) establish a sister factory in Taiwan; and 4) establish a worldwide sales and service network. As part of this plan, Pearl introduced their first professional drum kit, the "President Series," in 1966, and in 1973 the Pearl Musical Instrument Company of Taiwan became operational. Today, Pearl’s Taiwanese operation encompasses five factories whose output supplies nearly the entire worldwide market for Pearl products. The original Chiba factory now caters to the domestic Japanese market producing drum kits, marching drums, timpani, and symphonic chimesCreate or get your
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