Matao guitars were manufacuted in Japan during the "copy era" of the mid to late 70's at the Hoshino factory. Hoshino also manufactured Ibanez, Penco, Elger, El Maya and Aims guitars, which were sold by Randall.
Matao's were sold exclusively by a small chain of guitar stores called "Music West" in Oregon and Washington state. If you look around on Craigslist, they still pop up fairly often. There's a Matao acoustic and Matao banjo for sale on Portland's Craiglist right now.
BTW, did I mention to you guys that I'm somewhat of an expert on vintage Japanese guitars? I've owned dozens of them over the years and know quite a lot about the many brand names that came out of Japan back in the day.
