Ibasen was established by Kanzaemon Ibaya of Hamamatsu a merchant who went to Edo with Ieyasu Tokugawa. At that time the shop name ‘Iba-ya’ was based on the Enshu Iba village (now Iba-cho Hamamatsu-city), the founder’s home town. The stablishemnt year of 1590 is based upon founder’s birth date as the start year is unknown.
At that time orders were mainly from the Edo Shogunate. Japanese paper and Bamboo article were handled chiefly at the Edo Nihonbashi Horie Town (now Nihonbashi Kobuna-cho, Chuo-ku Tokyo). The company started Uchiwa-Ukiyoe (Ukiyoe fan) in the late Edo period, and the name ‘Iba-ya’ became known in Edo city as a publisher of Shodai-Toyokuni, Kunishige, Horishige and other items.
Today the pictures of the ‘Ibasen edition’ from those days can only be seen in museums in Japan and in overseas museums such as British Museun, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Van Gogh museums.