A family-owned Japanese manufacturer of pianos, which manufactured synthesizers between about 1979 and 1998. Their most notable achievements were the K5 and K5000 synthesizers, which were the only ever mass-produced polyphonic synths to be based on additive synthesis methods. The K5, introduced in 1987, allowed up to 126 harmonics, with settable levels and mappable to one of four multi-segment envelope generators as well as an LFO. It was noted for its display, which used various code marks to cram a huge amount of information into the limited graphics display capability of the day; the display is considered hard to learn but very quick to use once learned.
Some of Kawai's early synth models were sold under the name "Teisco", the name of a guitar maker that Kawai acquired in the 1960s.