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Posted Monday, February 16, 2004; 21:00 HKT
Of the 202 Buddhist sanctuaries in Osaka's Tennoji neighborhood, there is one that stands out: Shitennoji, the first Japanese temple commissioned by a royal and one of the oldest Buddhist complexes in Japan. Construction began in A.D. 593, just decades after the religion reached the country's shores. One of the carpenters for Shitennoji, Shigemitsu Kongo, traveled to Japan from the Korean kingdom of Paekche for the project. Over a millennium-and-a-half, Shitennoji has been toppled by typhoons and burned to the ground by lightning and civil war—and Shigemitsu's descendants have supervised its seven reconstructions. Today, working out of offices that overlook the temple, Kongo Gumi Co. is run by 54-year-old president Masakazu Kongo, the 40th Kongo to lead the company in Japan. His business, started more than 1,410 years ago, is believed to be the oldest family-run enterprise in the world.
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Masakazu speaks in a western Japanese drawl speckled with the business jargon he learned while studying architecture and economics at the University of California, Los Angeles. He explains that although 90% of the carpentry techniques Shigemitsu brought to Japan are still used today, the family repertoire has expanded from temples and shrines to include schools and retirement homes. But, Masakazu emphasizes, "temples are our focus," accounting for 80% of the company's revenues of $67.6 million in the latest fiscal year.
As much as the Kongos value tradition, their firm has survived by being flexible, even when that meant contravening ancient customs. "Most families automatically choose the eldest son to continue their business," says Masakazu. "Our family always chose the son who was healthy, suited for the job and with the largest sense of responsibility." When the 37th Kongo to lead the corporation committed suicide, Masakazu's grandmother Yoshie put on the company hard hat. The first woman to run the business, she oversaw the reconstruction of Shitennoji's five-story pagoda after it was hit by a typhoon in 1934. "If anyone is a superhero in our family, it's her," says Masakazu.
The ailing Japanese economy has proved tough for the company. Revenues are down 35% since 1998. "In the past, no matter how hard times were, people always contributed to temples, so we had work," Masakazu says. Today, "temples no longer have that significance." So the firm has been forced to lay off 15 employees and to cut back even on office supplies. Still, things have been worse. The loss of government funding after the 1868 Meiji-era cultural revolution forced the family to build nonreligious institutions. During World War II, the company's expert temple carpenters had to earn a living by piecing together caskets for dead soldiers.
Masakazu's secret for long corporate life? Deliver lasting products and stand by them. "At Shitennoji," he explains, "someone from our company is there every day. Unlike other construction companies, we handle the maintenance of our buildings. Our wooden structures are built to last a thousand years, and we are responsible until the end." In the era of the one-year warranty, that's an unbeatable promise.
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