The temple builder Kongō Gumi gives 578 as its founding year. Shitennō-ji in Osaka was founded in 593. From then until the Edo period, Kongō Gumi worked for the temple as its own miya daiku, temple carpenters.
In a ranking of Japan’s oldest companies, not counting religious bodies, Kongō Gumi comes first. Since 2006, a new company in the Takamatsu Construction Group has carried on its business, and the Kongō family no longer runs it.