The founder Yohei was born in 1835. He was an apprentice at a large fancy goods store called “Fujiya, ” which had continued for 17 generations in the neighborhood of Kyoto’s Toji. His impressive way of working during his time there led him to be selected as the head clerk of Fujiya. Before long he was allowed to run a shop of his own, as the husband of Kinu, the daughter of his master, Seibei, and so in 1861, at age 26, he started to run a fancy goods wholesaler in Gojo Sakai-machi. The town at the time was a wholesale district quite close to the business district of Kyoto, and it attracted many discriminating customers, who gathered from various places to procure goods. The founder Yohei’s shop sold many fancy goods including dyed cloth, ornaments to wear over kimono belt sashes, ornate hairpins and combs, which all beautifully decorated women in Japanese dress. He also sold rare and expensive items such as coral and tortoiseshell. At the time, many merchants used secret code words called “fucho” instead of numbers in their business. The founder Yohei chose the code “o-mo-shi-ro-no-ha-na-za-ka-ri, ” with the numerals 0 – 9 being replaced with each Japanese character. His choice of this code was motivated by his desire to offer “fun, elegant and interesting goods.” The “fucho” code was one of the basic tools of commerce, and the spirit that led founder Yohei to choose this kind of expression for his code, is the spirit that has been passed on as the basic principle of Imayo, from its founding to the present day.