How the Oldest Firm within the World, Japan’s Temple-Builder Kongō Gumi, Has Survived Almost 1,500 Years

By[email protected]

Picture from New York Pub­lic Library, by way of Wiki­me­dia Com­mons When you vis­it Osa­ka, you’ll be urged to see two outdated construct­ings in par­tic­u­lar: Osa­ka Cas­tle and Shiten­nō-ji (above), Japan’s first Bud­dhist tem­ple. In behold­ing each, you’ll behold the work of con­struc­tion agency Kongō Gumi (金剛組), the outdated­est con­tin­u­ous­ly run com­pa­ny on the planet….