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Bodies and Structures 2.0: Deep-Mapping Modern East Asian History

1904 Department Store Declaration (Translation).

Greetings,

Upon the succession of this store to the operation of the unlimited partnership of the Mitsui Dry Goods Store, the store employees will devote their full attention to the main Tokyo store, studying and pursuing the convenience of our valued customers. While we will of course exert ourselves to the utmost to meet the needs of the customers, as has been our practice up until now, we shall also earnestly redouble our efforts. With this in mind, we will endeavor to carry out the following:

The main Tokyo branch will renovate its appearance, upgrade its products, and add improvements in every quarter in order to enhance the aesthetic experience of the customer, and to provide every possible facility to make the act of purchase pleasant.
Our design division will provide a pattern reference room. For customers who wish to special order, this room will offer various old and new samples for viewing in order to facilitate selection.
We have also increased the variety of products sold at this store; we are equipped to supply most items related to clothing and adornment all under one roof. In short, we shall constitute a department store like those in the United States.
In the spring and fall, we will hold special exhibits of new patterns, promoting new products from all over Japan. At the same time, we will hold artistic exhibits, which, in addition to to demonstrating advances made in design, will present unparalleled displays of goods for our visitors to choose from.
The Kyoto warehouse will undertake further improvements to stand at the forefront of fashion, including expanding its dye and weaving facilities and manufacturing the very latest elegant fashionable goods.
The regional sales division will, with care and skill, endeavor to meet the needs of customers living far away, filling orders and sending patterns for metropolitan fashion goods as depicted in our monthly journal Jikou [Vogue].

For the purpose of the store enhancements along the lines mentioned above, our employee Hayashi Kouhei has been sent to the United States. Upon his imminent return, the cutting-edge methods of improvement that he will bring back will gradually be implemented in this store. These are our intentions that we would like to declare, despite the impertinence, on this occasion of our announcement of the store's incorporation.

December, Meiji 37, Mitsukoshi Dry Goods Store, Inc.

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Gateway to Western Wonders
In 1904, the Mitsukoshi dry goods store proclaimed its transformation into a modern department store. This was presented as a new kind of participatory space for (consumer) freedom, but also as a hub for knowledge regarding Western innovations, and at the same time an archive for traditional taste. In 1914, this commitment was fulfilled in the remodeled Nihombashi site, billed as a new wonder for the Tokyo metropolis. Its architecture evoked the European Renaissance, with elegant windows and even a cupola to lighten its impressive height and mass (Miyano 2002).
A few steps in, a customer would find him- or herself at the base of an atrium that soared to the top of the five retail floors. Beauty vied with practicality in this choice of structure: the nineteenth century was a period of experimentation in Europe and the United States for architectural crowd control. Allowing a member of the crowd to observe others, while maintaining awareness of being observed, had been proven well worth the lost retail area in discouraging such poor behavior as shoplifting and prompting a sense of high class decorum.
A new level of customer service was highlighted throughout: the first floor provided a smoking room, an information desk, and a pickup station for purchases. The second floor offered a pattern room and consultations for weddings and other such major events. On the third floor were fitting rooms for Western clothing, watch repair, and more. On the fourth floor hosted a dining hall, a more private dining room, a library, and a “child research” room.
The fifth and final retail floor featured areas for telephone sales, branch services, and the like. Every floor had bathrooms with the latest in plumbing, and all but the fifth provided elegant rest areas variously styled as Secession, Jacobean, Adam, or Louis XVI. Mitsukoshi’s flagship store was explicitly configured to provide its customers with a Western, modern, spectacular, public experience. There were no barriers to prevent customers from idly wandering from floor to floor; indeed, a sense of shopping as entertainment was positively encouraged. Nevertheless, at the same time, sorting by class was also carried out by the structure of the building. The basement was for food stuffs to be purchased by maids, and the higher one climbed, the more rarefied the goods and atmosphere.