Mitsui family
The is one of the most powerful families of merchants and industrialists in Japan.
The Mitsui, Mitsui enterprise (present-day Mitsui Group) was established in 1673 when Mitsui Takatoshi (1622–1694), the son of merchant parents, established Ec ...
of merchants and industrialists that later emerged as the Mitsui Group, a powerful Japanese ''
zaibatsu
is a Japanese language, Japanese term referring to industrial and financial vertical integration, vertically integrated business conglomerate (company), conglomerates in the Empire of Japan, whose influence and size allowed control over signifi ...
Ise Province
was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today includes most of modern Mie Prefecture. Ise bordered on Iga, Kii, Mino, Ōmi, Owari, Shima, and Yamato Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was .
History
The name of Ise appears ...
(present-day Matsusaka,
Mie Prefecture
is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Mie Prefecture has a population of 1,781,948 () and has a geographic area of . Mie Prefecture is bordered by Gifu Prefecture to the north, Shiga Prefecture an ...
), the son of merchants Mitsui Takatoshi (三井 高俊) and Shuhō (殊法). He was the youngest of eight siblings; four brothers and four sisters. His grandfather was a
samurai
The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...
and governor of
Echigo Province
was an old provinces of Japan, old province in north-central Japan, on the shores of the Sea of Japan. It bordered on Uzen Province, Uzen, Iwashiro Province, Iwashiro, Kōzuke Province, Kōzuke, Shinano Province, Shinano, and Etchū Province, ...
Mitsui Takayasu, who was later exiled to Matsusaka after being defeated by
Oda Nobunaga
was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods. He was the and regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. He is sometimes referred as the "Demon Daimyō" and "Demo ...
. Mitsui's father Takatoshi abandoned his
katana
A is a Japanese sword characterized by a curved, single-edged blade with a circular or squared guard and long grip to accommodate two hands. Developed later than the ''tachi'', it was used by samurai in feudal Japan and worn with the edge fa ...
, thus renouncing his status as a samurai, and established himself as a
sake
Sake, , or saki, also referred to as Japanese rice wine, is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indeed any East Asi ...
and
miso
is a traditional Japanese seasoning. It is a thick paste produced by fermenting soybeans with salt and kōji (the fungus ''Aspergillus oryzae''), and sometimes rice, barley, seaweed, or other ingredients. It is used for sauces and spreads; p ...
merchant and a
pawnbroker
A pawnbroker is an individual that offers secured loans to people, with items of personal property used as Collateral (finance), collateral. A pawnbrokering business is called a pawnshop, and while many items can be pawned, pawnshops typic ...
. The business was named Lord Echigo's Sake (''Echigo-dono no sakaya'') to commemorate Takayasu's office. However, Mitsui's mother Shuhō, a skilled merchant, was practically in charge of the business as her husband was not very fond of trading. 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. Mitsui, who later became a prosperous merchant, is said to have inherited his business skills mostly from his mother. The Mitsui family was a branch of Fujiwara Hok-ke.
He moved to
Edo
Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo.
Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...
at 14 years of age, following his eldest brother Toshitsugu who had extended the family business by opening a
kimono
The is a traditional Japanese garment and the national dress of Japan. The kimono is a wrapped-front garment with square sleeves and a rectangular body, and is worn Garment collars in hanfu#Youren (right lapel), left side wrapped over ri ...
store (呉服屋, ''
gofukuya Gofuku (呉服) is a Japanese word meaning cloth (for Japanese clothes); kimono fabrics; textile; drapery; dry goods; or piece goods. there in 1627. Takatoshi in a little over a decade rose to be manager of his brother's shop.
In 1649, his elder brother Shigetoshi died at the age of 36, and he returned to Matsusaka to look after his aging mother, remaining there for two decades. There, he married Nakagawa Kane, the eldest daughter of the Nakagawa merchant family; the two had ten sons and five daughters. He returned to Edo on his elder brother Toshigutsu's death in 1673. He then established the Echigoya Drapery in
Nihonbashi
is a business district of Chūō, Tokyo, Japan, which sprung up around the bridge of the same name that has linked two sides of the Nihonbashi River at this site since the 17th century. The first wooden bridge was completed in 1603. The curre ...
the following year, which was to become, later, the head company of the famous
Mitsukoshi
is an international Department stores in Japan, department store chain with headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. Its holding company, Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings, is a member of the Mitsui, Mitsui Group.
History
It was founded in 1673 with the (sho ...
retail shopping chain. He also set up a material supplies store in Kyoto at this time. 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
The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. C ...
.
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. He also relocated, in 1686, the headquarters of the family business from Matsusaka to Kyoto. He died at the age of 73.
Mitsui had six sons.