It was founded in 1673 with the yagōEchigoya, selling kimonos. 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. Genichiro Inokuma designed the wrapping paper in white and red. In August 2007, it was announced that Mitsukoshi would merge into Isetan, a major department store in Japan. Mitsukoshi was unlisted on March 26, 2008, and on April 1, it merged with Isetan under a joint holding company called Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings Ltd.. 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 Manila, Philippines.
The stores in Taiwan are named, a collaboration between the Shin Kong Group and Mitsukoshi. The first Shin Kong Mitsukoshi store opened at Nanjing Road in Taipei in 1991.
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.
In 1930, Mitsukoshi opened their department store in downtown Seoul. After the liberation of Korea and the defeat of Japan in 1945, Samsung took over this store and renamed it Shinsegae.
London - The London store opened in 1979 and closed in 2013. It was a popular shopping destination for Japanese visitors, and also incorporated a restaurant. It was located on Lower Regent Street, alongside the Japan Centre and a small cluster of Japanese restaurants. At the end of June 2013 a large red poster was displayed in the window of Mitsukoshi London department store which read '34年間ありがとうございます Closing Down Sale' which means 'Thank you for 34 Years'.
The three German stores of Düsseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich as well as the Milan shop closed in 2008 and 2009, the Paris shop closed in 2010.
New York City - Mitsukoshi opened a 10,000 sq ft boutique and restaurant in rented space in the Ritz Towerapartment building at 57th Street and Park Avenue on March 16, 1979. 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. Mitsukoshi opened a small popup store for one week only in SoHo during New York Fashion Week in February 2014.
