Building Memories - The History of Nihombashi Mitsukoshi Part 3

In the previous part of our look deep into the history of Nihombashi Mitsukoshi we left our story deep in the midst of Meiji era (1868-1912) Japan, a time of great social and cultural upheaval for Japan as whole, which continued the spark ignited in Edo that placed Tokyo at the centre of this whirlwind of change. It is worth remembering that at the advent of Meiji the store was still focused on kimono but as its changed its trading name from "Echigoya" to the general partnership company "Mitsui Gofukuten" in Meiji 29 (1896) it reflected the changing fashion of the city beyond gradually incorporating Western tailoring into its repertoire.

This in itself was something in a revolution in and of itself, as until this point Japanese merchant culture was generally focused on each shop being an expert in a single subject, very rarely moving beyond their field. In parallel with the store itself actively seeking fresh ideas from abroad where department segmented shopping in a single store had been long-popularized in Europe and America, this made the decision for the store to declare itself Japan's first department store all the more logical by Meiji 37 (1904) as it joined the institutions around it in Nihombashi in seeking their own renaissance to match the era.

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http://i.isetan.co.jp/mitsukoshi/nihombashi/en/news/2017/05/157en.html

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