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三井文庫本館(史料館)


GUIDE to MITSUI BUNKO -Business Archives and Museum of Art-

History of Archives

Mitsui Bunko, literally Mitsui Archives, originally established in 1918,and rebuilt as Zaidanhojin (nonprofit institute) in 1965 after two decades' being entrusted by government, is the largest business archives in Japan, known by the huge collections of historical business records.

The house of Mitsui, joint family dry goods and Ryogae (banking) business, enjoyed tremendous confidence and respect in the Edo period, Tokugawa Japan (1600-1868).The founder of Mitsui dynasty, Takatoshi, opened a dry goods store at main street of Edo (Tokyo) in 1673, where now its successor, grand Mitsukoshi stands, as the largest department store in Japan. Banking business combined with goods stores embarked in 1683. He became known for his innovative introduction ofハ "cash-pay, no mark-ups, made to order on the spot", to meet the growing mass market in the densely populated city, one million people in the 18th century. Also, being trusted by the Tokugawa government, Mitsui was made governmental financial purveyor. In trade and banking business, Mitsui House, administered by Kyoto Head Office, had continued to prosper until the end of Tokugawa period, by means of strategic business operations in big cities (Edo, Osaka and Kyoto), originally devised organization, elaborate personnel management and sophisticated accounting, in addition to well-known Kaken (House constitution).

After the Meiji Restoration in 1868, which sparked concerted modernization efforts in Japan, Mitsui House made great success to develop into a diversified modern business combine (Zaibatsu) from traditional rich family business. Banking, foreign trade, mining, shipping, manufacturing such as textile, machinery, paper and sugar, was the mainstay of integrated Mitsui Zaibatsu. Mitsui Archives (Honkan), not only maintains a large amount of almost perfectly preserved historical records in Edo period, but also stores important documents of business activities of Mitsui Zaibatsu and others before World WarU.

The Museum of Art as an Annex (Bekkan) of Archives was opened in 1985 with the financial assistance of Mitsui Group companies to be the art museum housing the art objects and other cultural assets received from the Mitsui families. Further donations were given, and at present the Museum collections include approximately 3,700 art objects, 130,000 postal stamps and the other cultural assets.

These art works include both Japanese and Asian arts collected throughout the whole history of the Mitsui families. They represent a diverse array of genres, including paintings, rubbings, calligraphy, tea ceremony utensils, dinnerware, furnishing, desk accessories, clothing and accessories, festival dolls, dyestuffs, Noh masks, swords and others. Among these works, Japanese government has designated 6 as Japanese National Treasure, 19 Important Cultural Properties, and 45 Important Art Objects. The tea ceremony utensils including highly artistical craft products, Noh masks, postal stamps and Chinese rubbings represent the finest collection of their kind of Japan.

Mitsui Museum of Art is reputed in its both large quantity and high quality of its cultural assets. Even though the space of gallery is not large, it demonstrates the elegance (Miyabi), sophistication and delicacy in essence of Japanese arts and crafts, as well as provides a historical overview of Japanese and Chinese cultural tradition.


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Contact

Mitsui Bunko

5-16-1 Kamitakada, Nakano-ku, Tokyo 164-0002, JAPAN Tel:03-3387-9431 Fax:03-3387-9432

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