The group’s shipping origins are traced to 1870 and the Tosa Clan’s Tsukumo Shokai. Watt gives Yataro Iwasaki’s foundation of Tosa Kaisei Shosa on 9 October, its renaming as Tsukumo Shokai on 18 October, Mitsukawa Shokai in January 1872 and Mitsubishi Shokai in March 1873. The shipping division became Mitsubishi Kisen Kaisha in May 1875. Merchant Ships instead gives origins in Tokio & Osaka Co. in 1868 and Yubin Kisen Kaisya in 1871; these accounts are not reconciled. The non-shipping organisation became Mitsubishi Sha in March 1886, Mitsubishi Goshi Kaisha in December 1893, K.K. Mitsubishi Sha in December 1937 and Mitsubishi Honsha in February 1943, before the post-war group emerged.
Keep the explicit scope label independent; no alias or company identity is inferred.