鐘紡(株)『鐘紡百年史』(1988.10)

Five cotton wholesalers in Tokyo founded the Tokyo Cotton Trading Company in 1886 and built a spinning factory in Kanegafuchi on the Sumida River. The factory became Kanegafuchi Spinning Kabushiki Kaisha in 1893 with Shibusawa Eiichi as an advisor. During a troubled period the company received support from Mitsui, and went on to absorb many other spinning companies and also expand into the heavy chemical industry. In 1944 it merged with the non-fiber industry Kanegafuchi Jitsugyo (“Kanegafuchi Industry”) to form Kanegafuchi Industrial Company Kabushiki Kaisha. After World War II, the company returned to the fiber business and in 1946 changed the company name back to Kanegafuchi Spinning. Kanegafuchi expanded into industries such as cosmetics and food and was renamed Kanebo, Ltd. in 1971 (“Kanebo” comes from the original Japanese company name KANEgafuchi BOseki). The 100-year history was compiled with a focus on the period of historical managers such as Muto Sanji (1867-1934) and is an epic work of over one thousand pages. [In 2001 Kanebo changed the way the company name was written in Japanese, switching from Chinese characters to the katakana syllablry. In 2004 the cosmetics division was transferred and Kanebo Cosmetics Inc. was launched. In 2005 natural and synthetic fiber operations were transferred to KB SEIREN, Ltd. In 2006 the staff department and business divisions became independent . In 2007 Kracie Holdings, Ltd. was established and Kanebo, Ltd. was dissolved.]