Japan · since 1893
Yanagisawa serial numbers
Japan's saxophone specialist.
Yanagisawa has built saxophones in Japan since the 1890s and has made them under its own name since the 1950s. The maker publishes no serial table; the community chart in this archive is reported data, and the answer says so.
The numbering
- Yanagisawa 1980-2014+ (community chart)
Saxophone — 33 ranges
Yanagisawa does not publish a serial table. The chart used here is the community one carried by dcsax.com; the 1970s instruments carry a built-in date code instead (digits 3-4 of the 7-8 digit serial are the year). The firm will confirm any serial by e-mail, and Conn-Selmer (US distributor) publishes no Yanagisawa table either.
Codes, eras and engraving
Model era by serial block (Yanagisawa single sequence) — 1956-2000s
Yanagisawa numbers run in one continuous sequence with a reset when the company reorganised, and the model is read from the era rather than from a stamp: the early T3/T4/T5 tenors, A3/A4/A5 altos and the 900/991/992 series bracket the 1970s-1980s, and the 99x and WO series follow. The same instrument can also appear under a stencil badge for other sellers.
This is a model-era lookup on top of the serial ranges; it does not add a year where the ranges have none.
| A3 / T3 era numbers | Early professional line; saxpics lists the model pages separately from the serial ranges, so the era boundaries are approximate. | |
| A5 / T5 era numbers | Model family that precedes the 900 series. | |
| 900 series (901/902/991/992) | The 900 series runs overlap: 901/902 are the entry professional models of the period. |
Models in the archive
24 models catalogued, 24 with a basis-labeled price — Full catalogue assembled in chat-4 (chat-3 minimal rows preserved). Existing chat-3 rows keep their original confidence type; chat-4 rows use high/medium/low. Prices live in prices.json of the same brand.
Questions
Can this archive date Yanagisawa instruments from the serial number?
Yes — the archive covers 1 numbering sequence(s) and 33 dating ranges from 1980 to 2014, compiled from published maker records and reference charts. Every answer states its source and confidence.
Where is the serial number on a Yanagisawa instrument?
For Saxophones the common location is on the lower body tube near the neck receiver, or at the bell bow — lightly engraved, sometimes two numbers on one horn.
What if my Yanagisawa serial number is not found?
Recheck the characters exactly as marked, including any letters. Letter prefixes often belong to student or stencil lines. Some periods may not be covered yet — every refusal here says why.