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]
China: The
Dalian store closed at the end of the Second World War.[10]
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.[11]
South Korea: In 1930, Mitsukoshi opened a department store (京城三越) in downtown
Keijō (today
Seoul).[12] 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").[13]
Europe
Former stores
London (Piccadilly) - The London store opened in 1979[14] 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]