A Six Decade Legacy of Beautiful Japanese Craftsmanship
Honma golf equipment has increasingly been the first choice of many golfers throughout Asia and their home of manufacturing facilities in Sakata, Japan, is located about one-hour plane ride north of the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo. Honma’s Sakata plant has operated one of the most prestigious and high-performance global golf equipment brands since 1959. From victories on the world’s most elite tours to Honma’s most precious and brilliantly crafted designs being gifted to dignitaries, the brand’s lore runs deep world-wide.
The self-made Honma family has played an instrumental role in the success of the Japanese people and economy since the 16th century. In the 18th century, income from their shipping and banking interests enabled them to become Japan’s wealthiest landowners, which was later immortalized in Japanese folk songs. In 1813, the Honma family built a summer residence in the port city of Sakata. After World War II, the home was renovated and turned into a private museum, with many historic art treasures. It is now one of Sakata’s main tourist attractions.
In 1959, brothers Yukihiro and Hiro Honma — in a manner true to the traditional Japanese craftsmanship that went into preparing a katana for the feudal samurai — began to produce some of the finest golf clubs in the world. The brothers were both very avid golfers when they opened the Tsurumi Golf Centre in Yokohama more than six decades ago. From their single driving range and club repair business, grew the company which today crafts the world’s most prestigious golf clubs. Similar to the painstaking process of heating, folding and hammering of the katana blade along with careful water quenching and hardening, Honma has long trusted its master craftsmen, its “takumi,” to hand-sculpt the finest materials into clubs players would trust generation after generation.
In 1973, Honma introduced its first driver with a graphite shaft. At a time when drivers were made of persimmon wood with inserts screwed into the face, mated to a steel shaft, Honma could pair them with graphite shafts.
Honma’s image has long been one of a luxury Japanese golf brand. Today, more golfers worldwide – including a growing number in North America and Europe – appreciate that Honma still designs and engineers its own clubs and shafts that endure Japanese precision, detail and craftsmanship, consumer trust and high satisfaction.
Honma employs more than 350 legendary tradesmen known as ‘takumi’ or ‘expert craftsmen’ who build and design BERES, TR, and T//World GS clubs with unparalleled beauty and technology. Hiroshi Suwa, the Head of Product Development and the lead Takumi with 42 years of service at Honma Golf (mostly in Sakata, Japan) leads the team.
Honma’s uncommon beauty is born through a unique process. For example, every Honma driver and fairway wood starts out as a single block of Mississippi persimmon wood in the talented hands of a seasoned takumi. That piece is meticulously shaven and hand-crafted into the desired, actual size clubhead shape. Once the wooden model is perfected with precision angles, curves and lines, it is scanned digitally and brought into a CAD environment for engineering. Honma then employs state-of-the-art technology and cutting-edge materials to bring performance and beauty into its unprecedented design.
Today, the prestigious BERES line continues to turn heads with gold inlays and luxury pricing, and that will not change anytime soon with the soon to be release of BERES Black, coming Fall of 2021. Complimenting BERES is the new T//World GS (Gain Speed) family of clubs, which are beautifully crafted, streamlined, game improvement products designed with advanced technology to deliver more speed and exceptional playability for a wide range of golfers.
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