森永製菓(株)『森永五十五年史』(1954.12)

Originally from Saga, Morinaga Taichiro (1865-1937) studied the manufacturing process of Western-style sweets in the United States and established Morinaga’s Western Confectionery Shop in Tokyo in 1899. In 1905, Matsuzaki Hanzaburo (1874-1961), who had been involved in foreign trade, joined the shop and became manager. In 1912 the shop reorganized into a joint-stock company, becoming Morinaga & Co., Ltd. Caramels had been manufactured and sold individually since the establishment of the company, but were improved and, as a result of changes in packaging, became a hit product. In 1942, due to wartime business integrations, various companies were merged together and the new company renamed Morinaga Shokuryo Kogyo (“Morinaga Food Industry”) the following year. After World War II, the commercial and dairy departments were divided and the name was changed back to Morinaga Seika (“Morinaga Confectionery”). The 55-year history includes memoirs of Morinaga Taichiro and Matsuzaki Hanzaburo in Part I, pictures of goods and advertisements dating back to the founding in Part 2, and documents and materials in Part 3.