How the Oldest Corporate within the International, Japan’s Temple-Builder Kongō Gumi, Has Survived Just about 1,500 Years

Symbol from New York Pub­lic Library, by the use of Wiki­me­dia Com­mons

For those who vis­it Osa­ka, you’ll be recommended to peer two previous construct­ings in par­tic­u­lar: Osa­ka Cas­tle and Shiten­nō-ji (above), Japan’s first Bud­dhist tem­ple. In behold­ing each, you’ll behold the paintings of con­struc­tion company Kongō Gumi (金剛組), the previous­est con­tin­u­ous­ly run com­pa­the big apple on the planet. It was once with the construct­ing of Shiten­nō-ji, com­mis­sioned by way of Prince Shō­toku Taishi within the yr 578, that introduced it into exis­tence within the first position. Again then, “Japan was once pre­dom­i­nant­ly Shin­to and had no miyadaiku (automotive­pen­ters skilled within the artwork of construct­ing Bud­dhist tem­ples),” writes Irene Her­rera at Works that Paintings, “so the prince employed 3 professional males from Baek­je, a Bud­dhist state in what’s now Korea,” amongst them a cer­tain Kongō Shiget­su.

There­after, Kongō Gumi con­tin­ued to oper­ate inde­pen­dent­ly for greater than 1,400 years, run by way of 40 gen­er­a­tions of Kongō Shiget­su’s descen­dants. By the point Toy­oto­mi Hideyoshi had the com­pa­the big apple construct Osa­ka Cas­tle in 1583, it have been estab­lished for close to­ly a mil­len­ni­um. Within the cen­turies since, “the cas­tle has been destroyed repeat­ed­ly by way of hearth and light-weight­ning,” Her­rera writes. “Kongō Gumi professionals­pered as a result of those primary recon­struc­tions, which professional­vid­ed them with plen­ty of labor.” Via­out maximum of its lengthy his­to­ry, a good stead­ier busi­ness got here from their spe­cial­ty of construct­ing Bud­dhist tem­ples, no less than till seri­ous chal­lenges to that busi­ness mod­el arose within the twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry.

“International Conflict II introduced sig­nif­i­cant adjustments to Japan, and the call for for tem­ple con­struc­tion waned,” says the tourism com­pa­the big apple Toki. “Sens­ing the shift­ing tides of the time, the com­pa­the big apple made a strate­gic deci­sion to piv­ot its exper­tise against a brand new endeav­or: the craft­ing of coffins.” Gov­ern­males­tal consistent with­mis­sion was once organized by way of the wid­ow of Kongō Haruichi, Kongō Gumi’s thirty seventh chief, who’d tak­en his personal existence out of finan­cial melancholy inflict­ed by way of the Shōwa Depres­sion of the 9­teen-twen­ties. Right here time on the head of the com­pa­the big apple illus­trates its long-held will­ing­ness to grant lead­er­send tasks no longer simply to first sons, however to fam­i­ly mem­bers very best swimsuit­ed to do the task; for that rea­son, the his­to­ry of the Kongō extended family comes to many sons-in-law delib­er­ate­ly sought out for that pur­pose.

The com­bined forces of the decline of Bud­dhism and the pop­ping of Japan’s real-estate bub­ble within the nineties even­tu­al­ly pressured Kongō Gumi to develop into a sub­sidiary of Taka­mat­su Con­struc­tion Staff in Jan­u­ary 2006. “The cur­hire Kongō Gumi paintings­power has just one mem­ber of the Kongō fam­i­ly,” the Nikkei Asia file­ed in 2020, “a daugh­ter of the fortieth head of the fam­i­ly” who “now serves because the forty first head.” However its miyadaiku — dis­tinc­tive­ly orga­nized into 8 inde­pen­dent kumi, or teams — con­tin­ue to do the paintings they all the time have, with ever-more-refined ver­sions of the tra­di­tion­al equipment and tech­niques they’ve been the use of for close to­ly a mil­len­ni­um and a part. Kongō Gumi con­tin­ues to obtain inter­na­tion­al atten­tion for primary­tain­ing its top lev­el of crafts­guy­send, however view­ers of Amer­i­can TV dra­ma in recent times will even appre­ci­ate that its hav­ing solved the prob­lem of suc­ces­sion.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Why Japan Has the Previous­est Busi­ness­es within the International?: Hōshi, a 1300-12 months-Previous Resort, Provides Clues

Construct­ing With­out Nails: The Genius of Japan­ese Automotive­pen­take a look at

Hōshi: A Quick Document­u­males­tary at the 1300-12 months-Previous Resort Run by way of the Similar Japan­ese Fam­i­ly for 46 Gen­er­a­tions

Japan­ese Priest Tries to Revive Bud­dhism by way of Convey­ing Tech­no Tune into the Tem­ple: Attend a Psy­che­del­ic 23-Minute Ser­vice

A Vis­it to the International’s Previous­est Resort, Japan’s Nisiya­ma Onsen Keiunkan, Estab­lished in 705 AD

See How Tra­di­tion­al Japan­ese Automotive­pen­ters Can Construct a Complete Construct­ing The usage of No Nails or Screws

Based totally in Seoul, Col­in Marshall writes and vast­casts on towns, lan­guage, and cul­ture. His tasks come with the Sub­stack newslet­ter Books on Towns and the e-book The State­much less Town: a Stroll via Twenty first-Cen­tu­ry Los Ange­les. Fol­low him on Twit­ter at @colinmarshall or on Face­e-book.