The First National Bank was located in the

Kabutocho Kabutochō () or more formally Nihonbashi Kabutochō () is a neighborhood of Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, where the Tokyo Stock Exchange and many securities companies are located, so that it is considered Japan's equivalent of Wall Street in N ...

area, the business centre of Tokyo. Kabuto-cho was crowded with the core institutions of Japan's modern economy, including banks, the commodity exchange, and the stock exchange.

History

The First National Bank building was initially constructed in 1872 as the main bank of the Mitsui group. In the following year, it became the headquarters of the First National Bank ('' Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank''), which was founded by Shibusawa Eiichi (1840-1931) and other businessmen. The building featured a traditional

Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

-style structure, but its exterior was in a pseudo-western style.

Shimizu Kisuke II Shimizu may refer to: People * Shimizu (surname) (清水, "clear" or "pure water"), a common Japanese surname Places Japan * Shimizu, Fukui -chō, town, Fukui Prefecture *Shimizu, Shizuoka -chō, town, Shizuoka Prefecture * Shimizu-ku, Shizuo ...

, who designed and constructed the building, had practiced western-style architecture in the foreign concession in Yokohama and was Japan's leading house builder. He also worked on structures such as the "Tsukiji Hotel" and the "Mitsui House" at Suruga-cho. During the Meiji period, western architectural style and designs by foreign architects were adopted for many government facilities. Pseudo western-style buildings, mixing western and Japanese styles, were often constructed for the private sector. {{coord missing, Tokyo Buildings of the Meiji period Buildings and structures in Chūō, Tokyo Commercial buildings completed in 1872 1872 establishments in Japan