Centuries-old firms
Kongō Gumi 金剛組
Temple builders for over 1,400 years
Kongō Gumi was founded in 578, when Prince Shōtoku brought carpenters from the Korean kingdom of Baekje to build Shitennō-ji temple in Osaka. The Kongō family ran it for around 40 generations, making it the oldest known company in the world.
- Founded
- 578
- Founder
- Shigemitsu Kongō
- Started in
- Osaka
- Status
- Absorbed in 2006
Timeline
-
578
Shigemitsu Kongō arrives from Baekje to build Shitennō-ji, Japan's first state-built Buddhist temple.
-
1583
Helps build Osaka Castle for Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
-
1955 (Shōwa 30)
Becomes a modern joint-stock company and starts taking on concrete buildings as well as temples.
-
2006 (Heisei 18)
Heavy debts from 1980s property investments force a rescue. Its business is taken over by the Takamatsu Construction Group, where the Kongō Gumi name lives on.
Years in brackets are the Japanese era year. Japanese era converter →
Did you know?
Shitennō-ji, the temple it was founded to build, still stands in Osaka, although it has been rebuilt many times after fires and war.
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Dates follow the companies' own published histories where available. Trademarks belong to their owners; this page is not affiliated with any company listed.