Kawai: The Piano Maker Behind Our Showroom Floor
Nearly a century of piano-building in Hamamatsu, Japan — and the reason it's Kawai, not a dozen smaller names, that anchors our piano range.
Walk our showroom floor and the piano section is almost entirely Kawai — from a compact digital piano a beginner can start on today, to a concert grand a professional would choose for the stage. That's not an accident of stock. It's a deliberate choice, built on a company with one of the more interesting origin stories in the entire piano industry.
A Company Born From an Apprenticeship
Hamamatsu, Japan — 1927
Koichi Kawai is born in Hamamatsu, Japan, the son of a wagon maker with a natural gift for mechanical design.
A neighbour — Torakusu Yamaha, then building Japan's first pianos — takes the young Koichi on as an apprentice. Kawai becomes part of the team that introduces the piano to Japan, and later the first person in the country to design and build a complete piano action of his own.
Koichi Kawai leaves to found his own company — the Kawai Musical Instrument Research Laboratory — in Hamamatsu, with seven fellow craftsmen and one goal: to build the world's finest piano.
Kawai is still headquartered in Hamamatsu, still family-connected four generations on, and remains one of the very few piano makers in the world that designs and builds both acoustic and digital pianos in-house.
Millennium III: The Idea Behind Every Kawai
The one piece of engineering that connects their entire range
Most piano brands treat digital and acoustic as two separate businesses. Kawai doesn't. Their Millennium III action — built from ABS-Carbon composite rather than the wood used in most piano actions — was developed for their acoustic pianos, then carried into their digital pianos as well. It's more dimensionally stable in heat and humidity than wood, resists warping over time, and gives a consistent, fast-repeating touch whether you're sitting at a AED 4,500 digital piano or a AED 99,000 concert grand.
That's the real reason a Kawai digital piano feels closer to an acoustic than most competitors — it's not a separate design philosophy, it's the same one.
Digital Pianos: Portable to Flagship Home
The ES series for portability, CA/CN/CX and KDP for the home
KDP75 Digital Home Piano
The most accessible way into Kawai's action and tone, with a compact cabinet and matching bench.
ES120 Portable Digital Piano
A genuinely gig-ready portable piano, light enough to move between rooms or venues.
CA901 Flagship Digital Piano
Kawai's top-of-line digital — their acoustic-piano expertise pushed as far as it goes without strings.
Acoustic Uprights and Grands
Where Kawai's century of craftsmanship actually lives
K-200 Upright Piano
Kawai's best-selling upright worldwide, and the benchmark by which the class is judged.
K-800 Upright Piano
The flagship upright — built to close the gap toward grand-piano feel in an upright footprint.
GX-2 Grand Piano
Concert-calibre GX series — the grand serious players and performers grow into.
Why we anchor our piano range on Kawai
It comes down to consistency: a beginner starting on a KDP75 and a concert pianist playing a GX-2 are, in a real sense, learning the same instrument. That continuity — from a first digital piano to a professional-grade grand — is rare in this industry, and it's why a student who starts with us on a Kawai can genuinely grow with the brand for the rest of their playing life.
Play the Full Kawai Range in Person
From the KDP75 to the GX-2, every Kawai in this guide is set up and ready to play at our Al Quoz showroom in Dubai.
Browse All Kawai Pianos