The is one of the largest Japanese ''

keiretsu A is a set of companies with interlocking business relationships and shareholdings. In the legal sense, it is a type of informal business group that are loosely organized alliances within the social world of Japan's business community. The ''ke ...

'', or business groups, founded by

Masatomo Sumitomo was a Japanese Buddhist monk and businessman credited with founding the eponymous Sumitomo Group. He was an 8th generation descendant of Sumitomo Tadashige. Sumitomo Tadashige said to be 22nd generation descendant of Taira no Takamochi from Ka ...

(1585-1652) around 1615 during the early Edo period.

History

The Sumitomo Group traces its roots to a bookshop in

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

founded circa 1615 by

, a former Buddhist monk. Even today management of the group is guided by his "Founder's Precepts", written in the 17th century.

Copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

refining made the company famous. Riemon Soga, Masatomo Sumitomo's brother-in-law, learned Western methods of copper refining. In 1590 he established a smelting business, ''Izumiya'', literally meaning "

spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season), a season of the year * Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy * Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water * Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a ...

shop". Riemon perfected techniques that allowed the extraction of

silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

from copper ore, something Japanese technology had not previously accomplished. The smelting and smithing business was moved from Kyoto to

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

by the late 17th century. Soga passed control of the company to his son Tomomochi who managed its transformation into a major trading house during the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

. Sumitomo began to export copper, import

silk Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the coc ...

, and provide financial services. By 1691, copper mining had been added to the portfolio. Japanese crest Igeta

The

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

allowed Sumitomo to import and utilize Western machines and techniques in its mines. Sumitomo soon branched out into even more business areas entering the machine and coal industries, as well as the forestry, banking and warehousing businesses becoming a '' zaibatsu'', or business conglomerate. After World War II, the Japanese ''zaibatsu'' conglomerates, including Sumitomo, were dissolved by the GHQ and the Japanese government. The group reformed as a ''

'', a group of independent companies organized around

The Sumitomo Bank was a major Japanese bank based in Osaka and a central component of the Sumitomo Group. It merged with Sakura Bank on April 1, 2001 to form Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation. History Sumitomo Bank was established as a private enterprise in ...

(now

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation is a Japanese multinational banking and financial services institution headquartered in Yurakucho, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The group operates in retail, corporate, and investment banking segment worldwide. It provides financial products and ser ...

) and bound together by cross shareholding. Many companies continue to use the word ''Sumitomo'' in their corporate names. Most of them are managed independently and listed at

Tokyo Stock Exchange The , abbreviated as Tosho () or TSE/TYO, is a stock exchange located in Tokyo, Japan. It is the third largest stock exchange in the world by aggregate market capitalization of its listed companies, and the largest in Asia. It had 2,292 listed co ...

(TSE) and other stock exchanges with highly dispersed shareholders. For some, the name only shows their historic origin, and they are no longer considered part of the Sumitomo Group.

Emblem

The

diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...

-shaped ''igeta'' mark is reminiscent of a type of frame placed over a well in premodern Japan and was the logo of Riemon Soga's ''Izumiya'' company.

Current or former Sumitomo Group members

Nikkei 225 The Nikkei 225, or , more commonly called the ''Nikkei'' or the ''Nikkei index'' (), is a stock market index for the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE). It has been calculated daily by the '' Nihon Keizai Shimbun'' (''The Nikkei'') newspaper since 1950 ...

constituent company.

References

External links

*
Sumitomo Group Public Affairs Committee
*

Official Sumitomo Site *
Sumitomo Corporation website: historical information
{{Authority control 1630 establishments in Japan Companies based in Hyōgo Prefecture Companies based in Osaka Prefecture Companies established in 1630 Conglomerate companies based in Tokyo Keiretsu Mitsui Zaibatsu