Mitsui Takatoshi

Mitsui Takatoshi (三井 高利, 1622 – May 29, 1694) was the founder of what emerged as the Mitsui zaibatsu. [1] The second son of Mitsui Sokubei, a grocer and pawnbroker of Matsuzaka (松阪市), in Mie,[2] his family was a branch of Fujiwara Hokke. He moved to Edo at 14 years of age, following his brother Toshitsugu who had extended the family's business by opening a sundry goods store (gofukuya:呉服屋) there in 1627. Takatoshi in a little over a decade rose to be manager of his brother's shop. [2] At age 28 he returned to Matsuzaka at his aging mother's request and remained there for two decades.[2] He returned to Edo on his elder brother Toshigutsu's death in 1673. He then established the Echigoya Drapery[3][2] in Nihonbashi (日本橋) the following year, which was to become, later, the head company of the famous Mitsukoshi retail shopping chain. He also set up a material supplies store in Kyoto at this time.[2] 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.[3]

In this Japanese name, the surname is Mitsui.

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.[3][2] He also relocated, in 1686, the headquarters of the family business from Matsusaka to Kyoto.[2] He died at the age of 73.

He had six sons.[4]

Notes

    Citations
    1. Jansen 2002, p. 176.
    2. Ozawa 2016, p. 166.
    3. Yonekura & Shimizu 2012, p. 508.
    4. Mitsui 1942, p. 5.

    Sources


    • Horide, Ichirou (Spring 2000). "The House of Mitsui: Secrets of Its Longevity". Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice. 8 (2): 31–36.
    • Yonekura, Seiichiro (December 1985). "The Emergence of the Prototype of Enterprise under Capitalism - The Case of Mitsui". Hitotsubashi Journal of Commerce and Management. 20 (1): 63–104.
    • Mitsui, Takaharu (January 1942). "Das Familiengesetz des Hauses Mitsui". Monumenta Nipponica. 5 (1): 1–37.
    • Horie, Yasuzo (April 1966). "The Role of the Ie IE (家—House) in the Economic Modernization of Japan". Kyoto University Economic Review. 36 (1): 1–16.
    • Jansen, Marius B. (2002). The Making of Modern Japan. Harvard University Press. p. 172. ISBN 978-0-674-03910-0.
    • Yonekura, Seiichiro; Shimizu, Hiroshi (2012). "Entrepreneurship in Pre-World War 11 Japan:The Role and Logic of the Zaibatsu". In Landes, David S.; Mokyr, Joel; Baumol, William J. (eds.). The Invention of Enterprise Entrepreneurship from Ancient Mesopotamia to Modern Times. Princeton University Press. pp. 501–526. ISBN 978-1-400-83358-0.
    • Ozawa, Emiko (2016). "Mitsui Echigoya's Gift to the Tokugawa Shogunate". In Chaiklin, Martha (ed.). Mediated by Gifts Politics and Society in Japan, 1350-1850. Brill. pp. 166–198. ISBN 9789004336117.


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