Japan Marks - Mitsui Bussan Kaisha (Mitsui Trading Co.) |
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MITSUI BUSSAN KAISHA MITSUI TRADING CO. |
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 1921 Nippon Gilded Sleeping Cat, 2"L blue trademark belongs to Mitsui Trading Co. |
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Seaports of the Far East,
historical and descriptive, commercial and
industrial facts, figures & resources, A. Macmillan,
1907. THE HOUSE OF MITSUI. Among the world's greatest commercial houses there are few, if any, that excel in history, wealth, or manifold interests the celebrated house of Mitsui. In the marts of men there is none that commands more confidence and respect; its integrity is like that of the Bank of England; its resources are enormous and its story is unique. During the compilation of these articles on the business activity of Hong Kong the writer had the pleasure of an interview with the genial and courteous manager ■of Messrs. Mitsui and Co.'s local branch, Mr. Seijiro Tanaka, who has been with the firm some ten years, and from whom was received the following information regarding its rise and development, which, although more suited to a volume on Japan, well merits the attention we give to it here, on account of the prominent position which the respective branches occupy, and the influence they exert in the ports forming the subject of the present publication. Apart therefrom, the records of the house will, we trust, be found not only interesting and useful to those having dealings with it in any of its numerous departments, but to everyone who would learn something of Japanese enterprise, as manifested by the foremost mercantile undertaking in the land of the Rising Sun. |
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| The Mitsui families, originating from the famous Fujiwara clan, can be traced from Takashige Mitsui, titled the "Echigonokami," who lived as the feudal lord of Namadzuye castle in the 15th century toward the fall of the Ashikaga Shoguns. Takashige was succeeded by Takatsugu; but Takayasu the son of Takatsugu moved to Matsuzaka, also in Ise, where he settled as a private citizen, laying the foundation of the present Mitsui firm. In the middle of the 16th century, Sokubei Takatoshi, the son of Takayasu, became a merchant, entering upon altogether a new career. His son, Toshisada, moved the firm to Kioto, and also started a dry-goods store, the present Mitsui-Gofukuten in Tokio. It was not, however, till the time of Hachirobei Takatoshi that the business of the firm was fully extended so as to lay the foundation for the present flourishing state of the Mitsui House. Takatoshi invented and introduced the system of cash-retailing; further, he organised the system for the collection and remittance of money, and also the carriers' business, and this, be it remembered, when economic science was but in a very rudimentary condition, when monetary transactions were almost unknown in the country. In 1687 the Mitsuis, represented by Takatoshi, were especially appointed by the Tokugawa Government as its purveyor and public exchange controller, and were given in recognition of these services an estate in Yedo. In 1723, observing the verbal will of Takatoshi, his son Hachirobei Takahira laid down in writing the Family Rules so valuable to the history of the Mitsui House, by which he and his five brothers pledged themselves to form a collective body of partners, working with a collective capital. This agreement drawn up by Hachirobei Takahira is the very same Family Rules upon which the whole undertaking of the Mitsuis is worked to-day. | ||||||||||||||
 1921 Nippon Gilded Sleeping Cat, 3"L blue trademark belongs to Mitsui Trading Co. |
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With the restoration of the Meiji Era, an important epoch
was opened in the historv of the firm. While the new Government
under the direct control of the Crown was in process of
consolidation, the Mitsuis acted as its principal financing
agents, and it was in a great measure due to this that the
country was enabled to bridge over a great crisis with which it
was then threatened from within and without. As the rewards for
these financial and other public aids they rendered to the
country. Baron Hachiroemon Mitsui, the present head of the
house, was created a peer, and other members or partners were
all given various kinds of titles. After rendering a vigorous aid toward the State and thereby passing through a financial strain, the Mitsuis now applied themselves with new energy and vigour to the reform and amelioration of their business undertaking: somewhat on the model of Western procedure. |
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| In 1876 the old Exchange House was transformed into a bank on a joint-stock system; this was the first private bank established in Japan. In the same year a new, yet a most important undertaking was organised for the purpose of general trading, and more particularly for that of foreign trade. The firm well-known as Mitsui Bussan Kaisha in the East, and as Mitsui and Co. in Europe and America, is the outcome of this enterprise. In 1889 the house acquired from the Government the concession of the Miike Coal Mines, and accordingly Mitsui Kozan Kaisha (the Mining Department) was established in order to control this and many other mines owned by the firm. | ||||||||||||||
 1921 Nippon Gilded Sleeping Cat, 4.25"L blue trademark belongs to Mitsui Trading Co. |
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The sphere of influence which the Mitsui possess in the
economical world of Japan is so vast and extensive that it would
be difficult to give anything like a comprehensive survey of it.
The undertakings of the Mitsuis are, however, divisible into
four distinct departments, namely, Mitsui Ginko (Banking
Department), Mitsui Bussan Kaisha (Foreign and Domestic Trading
Department), Mitsui Kozan Kaisha (Mining Department), and Mitsui
Gofukuten (Dry-goods Department). They are solely owned by the eleven partners of Mitsui conjointly, who assume an unlimited responsibility for the liabilities of the above-mentioned four companies. They comprise nearly every branch of business and enterprise in the commercial and industrial worlds of Japan—Banking, Mining, Home Commerce, Foreign Trade, Shipping, Fisheries, Agency Business, Warehouse Business, Retail Trade, Iron and Engineering Works. |
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Mitsui Bussan Kaisha.—It is in this department that the
power and resources of the firm are put forth to their fullest
extent, and by which the name of Mitsui is principally known to
the western nations. The Mitsuis, while engaged in banking and
other business for more than two centuries, were constantly
projecting to extend their hands to the foreign trade especially
in those parts of the world very little known to Japan, Thus in
1876 Mitsui Bussan Kaisha, or Mitsui and Co. as it is styled in
Europe and America, in its present form was first established,.
Takenosuke and Yonosuke Mitsui representing the family interests
at that time, assisted by an able staff. Since that year the
Company's business has been extended in every direction so as to
produce its present flourishing condition. The Mitsui Bussan Kaisha engages in almost every kind of export and import trade, having branches in nearly every part of the world, the aggregate amount of business transacted for a year being nearly Yen. 90,000,000, out of which the amount of foreign trade alone figures at Yen 70,000,000—that is, one-seventh of the whole foreign trade of Japan. The principal articles of the Company's export trade are coal, cotton yarn, raw silk, habutai, rice, cotton cloth, copper, silver, camphor, coral, cement, timber, railway sleepers, sulphur, matches, etc. |
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 1921 Nippon Gilded Green Moriage Sleeping Cat, 2.75"L blue trademark belongs to Mitsui Trading Co. |
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 1921 Nippon Gilded Blue Moriage Sleeping Cat, 2.75"L blue trademark belongs to Mitsui Trading Co. |
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 1921 Nippon Gilded Coloful Moriage Auspicious Symbols Sleeping Cat, 10"L blue trademark belongs to Mitsui Trading Co. (sometimes found unmarked) Gilded colorful lucky coins, rhinocerous horns & tasseled umbrella on textured moriage brownish-black background. |
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| Pictures courtesy of 2ezr.com | ||||||||||||||
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 1921 Nippon Gilded Figural Cat Salt & Pepper Shaker Set, 5"L blue trademark belongs to Mitsui Trading Co. |
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| Note: I am noting here I found a sleeping cat in the same form as the Mitsui moriage sleeping cat and it was stamp marked Shofu Made in Japan. It may possibly be that Shofu China supplied Mitsui with the moriage sleeping cats and marked their cats with their own logo since they were a trading company and not a kiln or factory. | ||||||||||||||
 1904 Ad for Mitsui Bussan Kaisha (Mitsui Trading Co.) |
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IGETA 三 FLOWERS? HAND PAINTED NIPPON BLUE DATE 1891-1912 |
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IGETA 三 HAND PAINTED NAGOYA JAPAN GREEN DATE 1913-1920 |
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