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Mitsui family
The Mitsui family (三井家, Mitsui-ke) is one of the most powerful families of merchants and industrialists in Japan.
The Mitsui enterprise (present-day Mitsui Group) was established in 1673 when Mitsui Takatoshi (1622–1694), the son of merchant parents, established Echigoya, a dry goods department store in both Edo and Kyoto, which later became the Mitsukoshi department store chain. Meeting with great success, Takatoshi extended his services to moneylending and exchange.
In the late Edo period, the Mitsuis were the richest and most eminent family in Japan, their business being thoroughly encouraged by the shogunal government of the time. After the Meiji Restoration, the family switched allegiance to the Meiji government.
In 1909, a Mitsui controlled holding company took over the business, with Mitsui thus becoming a zaibatsu (business conglomerate) of more than 150 companies, and in modern times the group counts dozens of multinational companies in fields such as trade, banking, shipping and shipbuilding, construction, mining, oil and gas, insurance, chemicals and real estate development.
Originally a samurai family, Governor of Echigo Province Mitsui Takayasu was exiled to Matsusaka after being defeated by Oda Nobunaga, and his son Takatoshi renounced his status as a samurai and established himself as a sake and miso merchant and a pawnbroker. The business was named "Lord Echigo's Sake" (Echigo-dono no sakaya) to commemorate Takayasu's office. Takatoshi's wife Shuhō was a skilled merchant and practically in charge of the business. She grew the business by introducing many business methods that were ground-breaking at the time, such as forfeited pawn and low-margin high-turnover. Her son Takatoshi (1622–1694), the founder of the Mitsui family, is said to have inherited his business skills mostly from his mother.
Takatoshi moved to Edo at the age of 14, and became the manager of his elder brother Toshitsugu's kimono store. In 1674, he established the Echigoya Drapery, which later became the head company of the Mitsukoshi retail shopping chain. In contrast to most drapery merchants, who catered to feudal houses and wealthy merchants, trading on credit with no fixed prices, Takatoshi introduced an innovatory system of cash based purchase based on fixed prices for wares and targeted consumers in the emerging middle class. He subsequently started a money exchange in 1683, with a new system for inter-city loans: he extended the family business by opening an outlet in Osaka, and was appointed official purveyor of dry goods to the Tokugawa shogunate in 1687. In 1686, he relocated the headquarters of the family business from Matsusaka to Kyoto.
In 1691 the Mitsuis were officially chartered as merchants of the Tokugawa shogunate, which ruled during that time. Three years later the family members set up their first constitution, which included details about the amount of property due to each branch as well as the duties of the family council, a periodical assembly that controlled business and other personal matters.
After the Meiji Restoration, the family switched allegiance to the Meiji government. In 1909, a Mitsui controlled holding company took over the business, with Mitsui thus becoming a zaibatsu of more than 150 companies operating financial, industrial and commercial industries.
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Mitsui family
The Mitsui family (三井家, Mitsui-ke) is one of the most powerful families of merchants and industrialists in Japan.
The Mitsui enterprise (present-day Mitsui Group) was established in 1673 when Mitsui Takatoshi (1622–1694), the son of merchant parents, established Echigoya, a dry goods department store in both Edo and Kyoto, which later became the Mitsukoshi department store chain. Meeting with great success, Takatoshi extended his services to moneylending and exchange.
In the late Edo period, the Mitsuis were the richest and most eminent family in Japan, their business being thoroughly encouraged by the shogunal government of the time. After the Meiji Restoration, the family switched allegiance to the Meiji government.
In 1909, a Mitsui controlled holding company took over the business, with Mitsui thus becoming a zaibatsu (business conglomerate) of more than 150 companies, and in modern times the group counts dozens of multinational companies in fields such as trade, banking, shipping and shipbuilding, construction, mining, oil and gas, insurance, chemicals and real estate development.
Originally a samurai family, Governor of Echigo Province Mitsui Takayasu was exiled to Matsusaka after being defeated by Oda Nobunaga, and his son Takatoshi renounced his status as a samurai and established himself as a sake and miso merchant and a pawnbroker. The business was named "Lord Echigo's Sake" (Echigo-dono no sakaya) to commemorate Takayasu's office. Takatoshi's wife Shuhō was a skilled merchant and practically in charge of the business. She grew the business by introducing many business methods that were ground-breaking at the time, such as forfeited pawn and low-margin high-turnover. Her son Takatoshi (1622–1694), the founder of the Mitsui family, is said to have inherited his business skills mostly from his mother.
Takatoshi moved to Edo at the age of 14, and became the manager of his elder brother Toshitsugu's kimono store. In 1674, he established the Echigoya Drapery, which later became the head company of the Mitsukoshi retail shopping chain. In contrast to most drapery merchants, who catered to feudal houses and wealthy merchants, trading on credit with no fixed prices, Takatoshi introduced an innovatory system of cash based purchase based on fixed prices for wares and targeted consumers in the emerging middle class. He subsequently started a money exchange in 1683, with a new system for inter-city loans: he extended the family business by opening an outlet in Osaka, and was appointed official purveyor of dry goods to the Tokugawa shogunate in 1687. In 1686, he relocated the headquarters of the family business from Matsusaka to Kyoto.
In 1691 the Mitsuis were officially chartered as merchants of the Tokugawa shogunate, which ruled during that time. Three years later the family members set up their first constitution, which included details about the amount of property due to each branch as well as the duties of the family council, a periodical assembly that controlled business and other personal matters.
After the Meiji Restoration, the family switched allegiance to the Meiji government. In 1909, a Mitsui controlled holding company took over the business, with Mitsui thus becoming a zaibatsu of more than 150 companies operating financial, industrial and commercial industries.
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