Kanebo formed in 1887 as the Tokyo Cotton Trading Company, based in Kanegafuchi, Tokyo. Actual operations, spinning raw cotton into thread, began in 1889. The company adopted an emblem taken from a cross-section drawing of a thread spindle, found in a British report about spinning machinery. The company changed its name in 1893 to Kanegafuchi Spinning Company and instituted a trademark bearing a temple bell and the Kanegafuchi name.