Mondo Knows Facts
Kongo Gumi is the oldest company in the world
The Japanese temple builder was founded in 578 and traded for 1,400 years Kongo Gumi was established in Osaka to build and repair Buddhist temples and was run by the Kongo family for over 40 generations. It specialised in constructing pagodas without nails, using interlocking wooden joints. In 2006 it was absorbed into a larger construction company, ending its run as an independent firm after about 1,428 years. It sits in Mondo's records & extremes collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
Where this comes from
Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
Go further
More facts like this
โ โ to keep reading, or swipe
Tags: companies, japan, longevity
Kongo Gumi is the oldest company in the world: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- The Japanese temple builder was founded in 578 and traded for 1,400 years. The figure is taken from Kongo Gumi, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a records & extremes fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Records & Extremes shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.