Japan’s Temple-Builder Kongō Gumi, Has Survived Nearly 1,500 Years

It didn't really survive though, in the end. In January 2006 the company was bought out. Per Wikipedia: "The old Kongō Construction remained only in the real estate division and changed its name to KJ Construction Co., Ltd. The over-1,400-year-old Kongō family's management structure essentially closed its doors. In July 2006, KJ Construction filed for bankruptcy due to insufficient funds." Nevertheless, very impressive track record!

People (incl. Japanese who have a overtly rosy picture of Europe) underestimate how important Tokugawa&#x27;s Sakoku was for the survival of all this.<p>Indeed, by the time Europe had f*ed up all of Asia in the mid-1800s and reached Japan again, Japan had very high levels of literacy which was perfect for selectively taking of high-culture&#x2F;industrial-technology of Europe.

The very old buildings the article talks about have long continuity but aren’t actually that old.<p>Article doesn’t seem to mention that Japanese temples are rebuilt periodically every 20-60 years.<p>Most construction businesses don’t have this recurring revenue model, tied to religious rebuilding.

It says something about the UK that of the 10 oldest companies, 5 of them are pubs (and two more are hotels with rather pub sounding names). Three share the name &quot;The Old(e) Bell&quot;

Why does Japan have such a heavy presence on the list of oldest companies[1], compared to say, China or India or Egypt?<p>1. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;List_of_oldest_companies" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;List_of_oldest_companies</a>

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;List_of_oldest_companies" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;List_of_oldest_companies</a><p>Looks like hospitality and foodservice make up the majority of the list, while very old construction companies are actually relatively rare.

Maybe it’s just me, but the idea of starting a company that exists 1,000 years into the future is much more exciting than building a startup in a trendy industry, getting acquired for big bucks, and never being heard of again.

I wonder if there were families or the equivalent of &quot;companies&quot; in the old Egyptian kingdom, which lasted for about 3000 years, longer than any modern-day civilization (although there may be some cultures that have existed for more than 3000 years)

Berenberg_Bank, private bankers since 1590, and Beretta, making guns since 1526, are probably the oldest large companies. There are a few wineries, hotels, and religious goods makers that are older, but quite small. Berenberg remains a successful merchant bank today, and Beretta guns can be purchased wherever guns are sold.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.berenberg.de&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.berenberg.de&#x2F;</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.beretta.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.beretta.com&#x2F;</a>

I have an in-law from a family of temple carpenters in Nara. They&#x27;re not finding people who want go through the rigorous training and the work load demanded of an apprentice.

This was fascinating and lead me down the &quot;Oldest Companies&quot; Wikipedia.<p>However, I was watching the second video linked in the article made by Endevr and it just sounds like it was made by and read by ChatGPT. The pauses are off and inflections are exactly the same on some words sounding unnatural. Is it me, or does anyone else feel that way about it? This isn&#x27;t a new trend, is it?

This is something that is a question to modern organizations: Capitalism is how the world runs, but companies don&#x27;t last. For eg: any bet on how many of the top 50 companies in the world will exist in 50 years -- probably single digit at best.<p>The institutions that endure seem to be religious, or family run institutions. One change in outlook is towards values&#x2F;principles(&#x2F;blind-faith?), as opposed to scaling&#x2F;commercial aspects. Nation states and companies are broadly about a century old, and philosophers need to think and call out paths for current institutions and people for endurance.

Look up Charlemagne Paradox and ship of Theseus to see that it&#x27;s merely a name that survived, and maybe some old techniques.

City of London Corporation started trading around 1067. It&#x27;s getting close to being 1000 years old.

Fun to find out that Japan&#x27;s oldest temple builder company had Korean founding engineers.

The closest (presumed) black hole to the Earth is Gaia BH1, which is about 1500 light years away. The expanding shell of photons reflected from the Earth during this era are just now reaching it.<p>Some small percentage of those photons are going to approach the black hole at the perfect distance such that they will be slung back on a trajectory where our solar system will be 1500 years from now.<p>Suppose in a thousand years we decide to build a space telescope of tremendous proportion sufficient to peer into that tiny little window and it takes us 500 years to build it. We could watch opening day!

I&#x27;m surprised that no one has mentioned the oldest and prima facie most successful corporate enterprise in history: the Roman Catholic church.