Morimura Group
History of the Morimura Group
Morimura Group (which is one of the largest ceramics corporate group in the world) has its origin from "Morimura Gumi", which was established by Ichizaemon and Toyo in 1876.By its business entity, Morimura Brothers Inc. is the one that directly took over Morimura Gumi.
Morimura Gumi which made a great effort by exporting pottery and porcelainware, fans, and dolls, etc. to America in the Meiji Era, started to focus on the progress of manufacturing pottery and porcelainware, and established Nippon Toki Gomei Kaisha in January 1904. (Presently NORITAKE CO., LIMITED) The sanitary ware divisions of both companies were then spun off in May 1917 to form Toyo Toki Co., Ltd. (currently TOTO LTD.), which subsequently spun off its insulator department to establish NGK INSULATORS, LTD. in May 1919.
In the same year, Okura Toen (currently OKURA ART CHINA, INC.) was established. Thereafter, NGK SPARK PLUG CO., LTD. (a spin off from Nihon Gaishi NGK spark plug division) was established in October 1936.
Diagram of Morimura Group's History
Yukio Sunagawa's "The Unselfish Life of Ichizaemon Morimura" was published by Soshisha Publishing.
Just what kind of secrets and history lies behind the formation of the Morimura Group? What kind of person was Ichizaemon Morimura, who was the man behind the Group's formation, and what kind of contributions did he make to society?
His noble spirit, superior management techniques and surprisingly austere way of life that have until now been almost entirely unknown are vividly and tangibly depicted in this book.
List price: JPY 2,000
Group Company Websites
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- NORITAKE CO., LIMITED
- Noritake; Japan's best tableware brand, also sells grinding and polishing tools, ceramic materials and heating systems etc.
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- TOTO LTD.
- Develops and manufactures housing equipment such as restroom, bath, kitchen, wash basin, ceramic, and Green Building Material.
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- NGK INSULATORS, LTD.
- NGK INSULATORS, LTD. helps build a better society through its ceramic technologies, including the technologies underlying insulators used to transmit and transform electric power, ceramics used to clean exhaust emissions, and NAS batteries for storing electricity.
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- Niterra Co., Ltd.
- Developing and manufacturing NGK spark plugs, that are highly evaluated by world's automobile manufacturers and NTK new ceramic that enrich industries and people's lives.
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- MORIMURA BROS., INC.
- Performs import, export and domestic sales for heat resistance raw materials, aircraft materials, metals, product for electronics industries, chemical products, plant machinery, flavors and fragrances, foodstuff and household goods, etc., as well as investments related to the above.
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- OKURA ART CHINA, INC.
- "Create the finest of fine porcelain" has been the slogan since its establishment in 1919. As Japan's finest tableware brand, we continue to produce artistic highly valued chinaware by using traditional methods.
- WEBSITE
The website of related organization
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- MORIMURA HOUMEIKAI FOUNDATION
- Founded by interested persons including Ichizaemon Morimura as the earliest private philanthropic foundation in 1914. The foundation contributes to the development of education, welfare, science, culture, and other public benefit services through aid and sponsorship.
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- The Kazuchika Okura Memorial Foundation
- The foundation was established by following the footsteps of Kazuchika Okura who was one of the founders of each group company. Since then, they have supported to the recognition of research which contributes to future development of ceramics.
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- Morimura Gakuen
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