Utagawa Hiroshige designed an ukiyo-e print with Mount Fuji and Echigoya as landmarks. Echigoya is the former name of Mitsukoshi named after the former province of Echigo. The Mitsukoshi headquarters are located on the left side of the street.
It was founded in 1673 with the yagō (shop name) Echigo-ya (越後屋), selling kimono. Ten years later in 1683, Echigoya took a new approach to marketing. Instead of selling by going door-to-door, they set up a store where buyers could purchase goods on the spot with cash. Mitsukoshimae Station on the Tokyo Metro is named after the adjacent Mitsukoshi department store.
Mitsukoshi is the root of Mitsui group. In the 1970s, Mitsukoshi bought the Oriental Nakamura department store in Nagoya and re-branded them as Mitsukoshi Nagoya.
In August 2007, it was announced that Mitsukoshi would merge into Isetan, a major department store in Japan.[2] Mitsukoshi TYO: 2779 was unlisted on March 26, 2008, and on April 1, it merged with Isetan under a joint holding company called Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings Ltd. (TYO: 3099).
On April 5, 2019, Mitsukoshi announced that it would further expand its Asian presence by having a Filipino branch established by 2021 at Bonifacio Global City, in Taguig, Metro Manila, Philippines.[3] The store opened on November 18, 2022.[4]
Stores
Japan
Courtesy bus for customers of Mitsukoshi's main store going to Tokyo station in 1932. Mitsukoshi was the first company to offer such a service in Japan.
The stores in Taiwan are named Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store, a collaboration between the Shin Kong Group and Mitsukoshi. The first Shin Kong Mitsukoshi store opened at Nanjing Road in Taipei in 1991.
Bangkok: Mitsukoshi Depachika, One Bangkok, a supermarket and food hall that is hosted and operated by a joint venture company One Bangkok Mitsukoshi Ltd.
China: The Dalian store closed at the end of the Second World War.[11]
Hong Kong: The first Mitsukoshi in Hong Kong, covering 12000 sq meters on 4 levels, opened at 500 Hennessy Road, Causeway Bay on 26 August 1981. A second store opened in 1988 in the Sun Arcade in Tsim Sha Tsui, but it closed in 1995. Mitsukoshi closed its original Causeway Bay store on 17 September 2006, due to the redevelopment of Hennessy Centre.[12]
South Korea: In 1930, Mitsukoshi opened a department store (京城三越) in downtown Keijō (today Seoul).[13] After the liberation of Korea and the defeat of Japan in 1945, Samsung took over this store and renamed it Shinsegae (신세계; lit. "New World").[14]
Europe
London (Piccadilly) - The London store opened in 1979[15] and closed in 2013.
New York City - Mitsukoshi opened a 10,000 sq ft boutique and restaurant in rented space in the Ritz Tower apartment building at 57th Street and Park Avenue on March 16, 1979.[18] In 1991, Mitsukoshi bought that space, as well as 30,000 sq ft of additional adjoining space, and opened a much larger outlet, which subsequently closed.[19] Mitsukoshi opened a small popup store for one week only in SoHo during New York Fashion Week in February 2014.[20]
