Japanese Traditional Dragon Carved onto Electric Guitar Draws Big Response; Inami Woodcarving on Display in Toyama Pref.

The Yomiuri Shimbun

12:41 JST, February 6, 2026

NANTO, Toyama — Embedding a traditional dragon into a guitar may well be the culmination of Inami woodcarving, an art form with a history spanning over 250 years.

The “ryuken” dragon sword, an electric guitar featuring a dragon descending from the heavens and coiled around a blade, is the centerpiece on display along with traditional ranma transoms and carvings at the Inami Woodcarving Composite Hall in Nanto, Toyama Prefecture.

It was completed in January 2009 by Hitoshi Takata, a certified traditional craftsman. The idea came from Munetaka Sakita, secretary general of the Inami Woodcarving Cooperative.

In 1995, when Sakita joined the cooperative, sales of Inami woodcarving — which had relied on transoms as a core product — saw sales decline due to the collapse of the bubble economy and the westernization of housing.

“We won’t survive unless we raise awareness and convey the excellence of Inami woodcarving,” Sakita thought. This conviction sparked the idea.

Sakita, who had been obsessed with Western music since elementary school and played in bands for a decade through his early career, approached carvers including Takata, who also had experience in a band, with a proposal to carve an electric guitar using the superb techniques of Inami woodcarving.

Production began after the cooperative secured a grant from the Central Federation of Societies of Commerce and Industry for fiscal 2008. The cooperative commissioned the guitar body from ESP, a Tokyo-based custom guitar maker favored by top-tier musicians.

Takata carved a dragon into camphor wood and mounted it onto the body. The project took about four months to complete.

With a price tag of ¥3.3 million, the guitar is prohibitively expensive for use as a regular instrument. However, shortly after its completion, electric guitarist Takeshi Terauchi played the ryuken at an event in Nanto at the request of the cooperative, captivating the audience.

It was featured in newspapers and on television nationwide, boosting the profile of Inami woodcarving.