Mitsui clan

The Mitsui family (Japanese三井 家, Mitsui - ke ) was one of the three major trading families during the Edo period and after the Meiji Restoration, the first family, which it was possible to establish a Zaibatsu. An ancestor of the Mitsui house was Takahisa Mitsui, a relative of the warrior house Sasaki from Ōmi and commander of his own castle. At the time of Mitsui Takayasu 's family Ōmi moved to Ise and to the time of Mitsui Takatoshi, the family had a residence in the city of Matsusaka in the province of Ise.

In 1673, the younger Takatoshi (4th son of older Takatoshi ) had established a dry goods store in Kyoto and Edo. 1683 and 1686, he taught bureaux de change in Edo and Kyoto, and until 1691 he also conducted a dry goods store and a currency exchange in Osaka (so the family had shops in the three main cities of the time).

The success story of the family business and later the Mitsui zaibatsu held more than 250 years, until the destruction of the great zaibatsu after the 2nd World War, continuously.