Two more photos...

Very beautiful..very Zimgar-ish...

Just pre-Yamaha. I mean Just! They started building modern drums in 1967 as Yamaha. Ask Osakabop, he will have a better timeline.

Jonni's right on

Nikkan was a drum manufacturer based near Tokyo in the 50s and early/mid 60s. Yamaha had no drum manufacturing dept. and aquired them. I don`t know exactly but it seems that happened around 1967. I have a 1964 Nikkan snare with a similar shell construction.

In the current market this snare is worth only about 100$ -125$ cash but very valuable in it`s richness in history and uniqueness. It looks to be in A+ cond. congrats!

Awesome, thanks very much for all the info you guys.

If you figure this is something special that belongs in the hands of a collector, let me know and I'll make sure it gets passed on inexpensively to a collector.

P.S. Osakabop, many thanks. One small follow up please; is it maple? Thank you. :)

This is a 3 ply mahogany shell with some unknown soft white wood for the hoops. The tone is rich and deep, hard to get it to tune really high and tight. You should keep this as your first "collectible" player. These Nippons are really very hard to come by. There are not too many of us that collect these oddities, so it won't hurt the world wide market for one to stay in the wild...Good luck, and if you need any tips on tuning and head selection, let us know.

Thank you Jonni. Cheers!Bowing

And the final chapter on this...

Today I sold this snare drum /w stand for $100 CDN to a young lady who, not only owns a blue sparkle drum kit (what are the odds?), but was clearly in love with it. The snare now has a much better home where it is properly appreciated. Excellent karma behind this sale, she really loves that drum, it was meant to be with her. flower

This has nothing to do with Yamaha. The drum was made by Sakae. So this Nikkan was a simple stencil branded drum.