Mitsukoshi Department Store

This is a 1930 pocket-size visitor guide to the Mitsukoshi department store. The Japanese were slow to develop the idea of the department store but when they did they proved to be innovative and ambitious. In these pages, designed for the western visitor, they promoted a series of refinements not often seen elsewhere. These included a roof garden, a courtesy bus service and an automatic store directory. The business can trace its origin back to 1673 and continues to trade extensively in Japan though its international presence has declined in the last few decades. The colour postcard shows the great atrium at the flagship Tokyo store at Nihonbashi.