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On 5ch’s Nandemo Jikkyo G (“Live Anything”) board, users shared a stream of Mitsukoshi trivia — from the lion statue guarding the main entrance of the Nihombashi flagship store and the heavenly-maiden statue in its atrium, to its origins as the Edo-period kimono shop “Mitsui Echigoya.”
Photos of small regional branches in places like Sendai, Takamatsu, Yamagata, Iwaki, and Isesaki (Gunma) poured in too, sparking talk about the size gap between the Tokyo flagship and its regional outposts, and how they stack up against long-established local department stores.
What people said
The front of the Nihombashi main store
The main entrance of the Nihombashi main store
There's a lion statue at the main entrance!
That lion's wild — it's been sitting there since the Taisho era, 100 years now, surviving both the Great Kanto Earthquake and the war.
The heavenly-maiden statue ("Magokoro"/True Heart) in the main building's atrium
There's a Japanese restaurant on the 4th floor of the main store's main building!
By the way, I had cream anmitsu (a sweet dessert of agar jelly, fruit, and red bean paste) here!
The Nihombashi main store isn't just the main building — there's an annex too.
The main building of the flagship store is a nationally designated Important Cultural Property!
There's an information center.
A small Mitsukoshi branch in Oyama, Tochigi Prefecture.
About a 10-minute walk from the east exit of Oyama Station (the Tohoku Shinkansen stop, on the side with Hakuoh University).
The rabbit girl "Mabel-chan"
Hey, Tetsugaku News (a news-aggregator site)!
Go make a roundup of this!
By the way, Mabel-chan is from Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, so this is probably Sendai Mitsukoshi…?
· Underground exit of the Nihombashi main store
If you're coming via Tokyo Metro's Mitsukoshimae Station or JR Shin-Nihombashi Station, this is the exit you'll use.
On JR, the nearest station to the Mitsukoshi main store is Shin-Nihombashi, on the Sobu Rapid Line (Yokosuka Line)
But unlike Tokyo Metro's Mitsukoshimae Station, you actually end up walking a long way through underground passages…
Honestly it's not that different from just walking from Tokyo Station (though at least you won't get rained on, unlike walking above ground)
I took the Tohoku Shinkansen from JR Utsunomiya Station to Tokyo Station, then transferred to the Sobu Rapid Line (Yokosuka Line)!
The Sobu Rapid Line (Yokosuka Line) platform is underground.
The escalator is really long too.
Got some shots of the Narita Express (N'EX) on the underground Sobu Line platform!
The station sign at Tokyo Station (underground Sobu Line platform)
Sendai Mitsukoshi
Fujisaki (a long-established department store in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture)
Doesn't look like they're making money anywhere except Nihombashi and Ginza.
Its roots go back to the Edo-period kimono shop "Mitsui Echigoya"
By the way, the founder was Takatoshi Mitsui!
There's even a small Mitsukoshi inside Smark Isesaki (a large shopping mall in Isesaki, Gunma Prefecture)!
The MITSUKOSHI at Smark Isesaki
Oh really!
Maybe this one!?
There's a small Mitsukoshi in "LATOV," the station building at Iwaki Station (Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture), too.
By the way, Iwaki Station is served by Joban Line limited expresses, the Rikuu East Line, and others.
Mitsukoshi Iwaki
They call it "small" but it's actually pretty big — though lately the tenants inside have thinned out and it feels kind of sad.
The upper floors have public facilities, like a library.
In the evenings it's swarming with high schoolers waiting for the bus or train home from school.
though it's surrounded by such a big shopping arcade that the building itself doesn't really stand out lol
Well, it is one of the biggest cities in Shikoku, after all…
Unlike Matsuyama, it's also close to Okayama Prefecture and the Kansai region.
But Matsuyama has both Takashimaya and Mitsukoshi too, right?
That whole city's got a strong orange vibe going on
Guess that tracks for Mikan Inu (the local mandarin-orange mascot dog).
I see
So it's more of a mixed-use building than a station building then…?
By the way, Iwaki Station is the strongest station in the Hamadori region, but there's still a huge gap compared to Koriyama Station (Tohoku Shinkansen, etc.), the biggest in Fukushima Prefecture, right…?
Sorry if that's a rude question.
Regional areas often team up with local governments to build these commercial buildings.
Kawaramachi FLAG in Takamatsu has a library and stuff on its upper floors too.
Yokohama's turned into a Yodobashi, Shinjuku into a Bic Camera, other kinds of stores taking over.
Apparently the Mitsukoshi group (or someone) still owns the building for the latter, though.
Yodobashi and Bic Camera are becoming the go-to fixture in front of regional city stations.
Utsunomiya, Kashiwa, Koriyama, Iwaki, Sendai — they're everywhere.
They've even moved into the space above Nihombashi Mitsukoshi, so I guess that's just how it's going to go.
That Yodobashi Camera is in Tonarie (formerly LalaSquare) at the west exit of JR Utsunomiya Station!
By the way, it used to be a Robinson's department store.
Looking at the alley on the left of the photo from a sign-nerd's perspective —
the "no entry" supplementary sign has a car icon, below that there's a "no parking" sign, and to top it off the stop line is cut off halfway
— I feel like that's just packed with quintessential Tochigi elements.
Iyotetsu Railway 🍊
The Iyo Bus runs there too, so yeah, strong orange energy lol
There's a small Mitsukoshi in Yamagata City, Yamagata Prefecture too
It's inside the Yamagata Kotsu (Yamagata Transportation) building
Maybe a 5-minute walk from Yamagata Station (Yamagata Shinkansen, etc.)
By the way, Yamagata City used to have a long-established department store called Onuma
It's gone now though.
Background and Key Points
Mitsukoshi traces its lineage to Echigoya, the kimono shop Takatoshi Mitsui opened in Nihombashi in 1673, making it one of the oldest continuously operating retail brands in Japan and the model for the country’s first Western-style department store when it rebuilt in 1904. The Nihombashi main building, completed in 1914 and rebuilt after the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, is a nationally designated Important Cultural Property, and its bronze lion (modeled on the ones outside London’s Trafalgar Square) and the giant wooden “Magokoro” tenmaiden statue are treated as pilgrimage stops for department-store enthusiasts. Since 2008 Mitsukoshi has operated under Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings, but many of its “small” satellite stores in cities like Sendai, Yamagata, and Iwaki are much older local operations absorbed into the group over decades.
The thread’s real fault line was less about Mitsukoshi’s history than about scale: Nihombashi and Ginza function as flagship, tourist-facing icons, while the regional branches are described as shrinking annexes squeezed by long-established local rivals (Sendai’s Fujisaki was singled out) and, more pointedly, one poster flatly stated that only the Tokyo stores are actually profitable.
What the thread never states outright is the broader industry pattern behind that comment: Japanese department stores nationwide have been closing or shrinking for two decades as suburban malls and, especially, electronics chains like Yodobashi Camera and Bic Camera take over prime station-front real estate — the thread even notes Yodobashi has moved into space above Nihombashi Mitsukoshi itself, while the building’s ownership often stays with the Mitsukoshi group even after the retail tenant changes.
This article has been excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “[The Ultimate Department Store] What I Know About Mitsukoshi Department Store [Nihombashi].”
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