Why Are So Many of the World’s Oldest Companies in Japan?

choi

Emily Tamkin, Keeping It in the Family; Why are so many of the world’s oldest companies in Japan? Slate (magazine), Oct 20, 2014.
www.slate.com/articles/business/ ... _them_in_japan.html

Note:
(1) 日本の老舗一覧
ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本の老舗一覧

(2) "The oldest running hotel in operation * * * is, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, in Yamanashi, Japan: a hot-spring hotel called Nisiyama Onsen Keiunkan, which has existed since the year 705. The second-oldest is another Japanese hot-springs hotel, Hoshi Ryokan, founded in 718."
(a) Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan  西山 温泉 慶雲館
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nishiyama_Onsen_Keiunkan
(the oldest hotel and oldest company still in operation)
(i) Except 西山 (both syllables are Japanese pronunciations), the rest of the hotel name have Chinese pronunciations.
(ii) The Wiki page's External links connects the official website, which at the outset proclaims itself as "甲州西山温泉 慶雲館."
(iii) The hotel is in the southwestern corner (specifically, 早川町) of Yamanishi Prefecture 山梨県.  
(A) This 甲州 is NOT present -day Kōshū-shi 甲州市, in the northeastern corner of the same prefecture.
(B) Rather, this 甲州 refers to ancient Kai-no-kuni 甲斐國 (the two syllables "ka" and "i" are represented by 甲 and 斐, respectively).

甲斐國
zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%94%B2%E6%96%90%E5%9C%8B
("亦稱為甲州（こうしゅう [pronouonced 'kōshū']）。其位置相當於現代日本行政區中的山梨縣")
(iv) Why is "shi" sometimes "si" in certain transliteration, though both are pronounced "shi"?  The same reason "chi" is occasionally written "ti" (both pronouonced "chi").  Different transliteration systems, in a nutshell.
(A) Romanization of Japanese
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanization_of_Japanese
(B) The common system--and the one I use--is Revised Hepburn system (named after James Curtis Hepburn)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Curtis_Hepburn

, but there are two others: 日本式 and 訓令式.

(b) Hōshi Ryokan 法師旅館
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoshi_Ryokan

Named after Taichō 泰澄法師, who "is said to be the first person to reach the top of Mount Haku 白山" (where the hot spring was/is located; in Japanese Wiki for the hotel: 粟津温泉の開湯と同時に白山開祖の泰澄法師 [translation: he was the first person who both settled down in the mountain and discovered the hot spring]).  
Taichō
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taich%C5%8D

choi

(3) "Sudo Honke, the world’s oldest sake brewer, has been around since 1141. Before being absorbed into a subsidiary in 2006, the oldest continuously operating family business in the world was Kongo Gumi, which built temples, and had been doing so for 14 centuries."
(a) Sudō Honke  須藤 本家
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudo_Honke
(i) Its website:
www.sudohonke.co.jp/
(ii) The owner is the Sudō family, where Sudō is the surname.
(iii) The  "fuji" (same pronunciation as Mount Fuji) and "tō" are Japanese and Chinese pronunciation, respectively, of the kanji 藤 (meaning wisteria).
(iv) The "tō" becomes "dō" when preceded by another syllable, to soften the consonant "t."
(v) honke 本家 【ほんけ】 (n): "head house (family); birthplace; originator”

(b) Kongō Gumi Co, Ltd  株式会社 金剛組
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kongō_Gumi
(i) kongō 金剛 【こんごう】 (n): "vajra (indestructible substance); diamond"
(ii) kumi 組 【くみ】 (n)L "(pronounced ぐみ [-gumi (to soften 'k')] as a suffix)  (1) set (of items); (2) group (of people); class (of students); company (esp. construction); family (i.e. mafia); team"

choi

(4) "The list goes on, and includes Yamanashi Prefecture Company, which has been making goods for home Buddhist altars and clothing for monks since 1024; Ichimojiya Wasuke, Japan’s oldest confectionary company, founded in 1000; Nakamura Shaji, a Buddhist temple and Shinto shrine construction company that dates back to 970; and Kyoto-based Tanaka Iga, which has been making Buddhist goods since 885."
(a) The English name of the company is NOT “ Yamanashi Prefecture Company” but “Shumiya-Shinbutsuguten Co, Ltd.”
(i) (株式会社) 朱宮神仏具店（しゅみやしんぶつぐてん）  
www.shumiya.co.jp
(ii) Based in Kōfu-shi (capital), Yamanishi Prefecture 山梨県 甲府市.
(iii) proprietors: 朱宮 家  
(A) shu 朱 【しゅ】 (n): “cinnabar; vermillion; red”
(B) miya 宮 【みや】 (n): "(1) shrine; (2) palace; imperial residence"  
(In the surnames and daily life, “miya” means a Shintō shrine rather than a palace (which is far away).)
(C) ke 家 【け】 (suf[fix]): "house (e.g. of Tokugawa); family"
(b) Ichimojiya Wasuke  一文字屋 和助（abbreviation: 一和; where 一文字屋 is the surname and 和助, the given name; located in Kyoto）
plus.google.com/109557023118546354632/about?gl=us&hl=en
(c) (株式会社) 中村社寺 ｜ 技と心 文化と匠に挑戦する
www.nakamurasyaji.co.jp/
(A) shaji 社寺 【しゃじ】 (n): "shrines and temples"
(where shrine 社 (short for 神社) is a Shintō 神道 building, whereas 寺 a Buddhist building)
(B) The “sha” (Hepburn system) and “sya” are different ways to Romanize (or transliterate) Japanese “kana.” see (2)(a)(iv).
(C) Both “shin” and “jin” are Chinese pronunciations of kanji 神.
(d) Tanaka Iga  田中 伊雅 仏具店
(i) Japanese Wikipedia has a brief page under this title, which comments, “社名は元々「伊賀」と記したが、この表記は天皇家ゆかりの者のみに許されるものであることから、仁和寺の門跡より授けられた「伊雅」に改めた。”

translation: The original company name had Iga written as 伊賀. However, due to the [unexplained] restriction that only those related to the royalty might use that term, the monzeki of
Ninna-ji 仁和寺
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninna-ji
(Emperor Uda 宇多 天皇 saw the construction to its completion in 888 and named it "Ninna" after the regnal year 年号 of the late Emperor Kōkō's 光孝 天皇 reign; After retiring from his throne, Emperor Uda became the first Monzeki 門跡, or aristocratic priest, of Ninna-ji. From then on until the end of the Edo period, the temple saw a succession of head priests of imperial lineage)

granted the company the use of 伊雅 [which was/is pronounced the same as 伊賀: iga].   

*  monzeki 門跡 【もんぜき】 (n): "(head priest of) temple in which resided a member of nobility or imperial family"
(ii) proprietors: 田中 家
(iii) website: (株式会社) 田中伊雅仏具店
www.tanakaiga.com/

choi

(5) “But that only explains how the companies were established early on, not necessarily how they have managed to last. One factor was the right of primogeniture”
(a) primogeniture (n; from Medieval Latin prīmōgenitūra birth of a first child, from Latin prīmō at first + Late Latin genitūra a birth[, from genitus, past participle of gignere])
www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/primogeniture
(b) primogenit (n)
www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/primogenit

The plain English is simply “firstborn (son).”
(6) “Most of Japan’s oldest companies are family-owned. Weinstein points to the robust example of Sumitomo and Mitsui, both centuries-old, which merged to become the multinational SMBC, Japan’s second-largest bank. Perhaps most famously there is Nintendo, which started out as a playing-card maker in the 1800s and managed to metamorphosize into an iconic consumer electronics company while remaining a continuously owned family concern."
(a)
(i) Wrong. Sumitomo Group (which "traces its roots to a bookshop in Kyoto founded circa 1615 by a former buddhist priest," Wikipedia, SUMITOMO Masatomo 住友 政友) and Mitsui Group (founded by MITSUI Takatoshi 三井 高利 in 1673 and inherited the grocery store/pawn shop his father established and named Echigoya 越後屋; After their father died, “Takatoshi waited for 24 years until his older brother died before he could take over the family shop, Echigoya.” Wikipedia) remain independent.

Echigo Province  越後国
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echigo_Province
(ii) Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) 株式会社三井住友銀行 was formed in 2001 when the respective banking branches of the two groups merged.
(b)
(i) In 1889, YAMAUCHI Fusajirō 山内 房治郎 in Kyoto founded Nintendō Koppai 任天堂骨牌 (in modern English: Nintendo Playing Card Co, Ltd).
(ii) koppai 骨牌 【こっぱい】 (n): "(1) playing cards [made of paper]; (2) mahjong tiles made of animal bone"
(iii) The “fusa” does not mean a room or a building.

fusa 房 【ふさ】 (n): "(1) tuft; tassel; (n, ctr [abbreviation for ‘counter’]) (2) bunch (of grapes, etc.); (3) section (of an orange, etc)"