The company built trunk lines connecting Tokyo with the Tōhoku region to the northeast.

The company was incorporated in 1881 as the first privately funded railway company in Japan, where the railways had been built only by the imperial government since early 1870s.

Major investors to the company were kazoku, led by the highest-class court noble Iwakura Tomomi.

The company, incorporated to help expansion of national railway network in line with the national policy, received strong support from the government, both technically and financially.

On November 1, 1906, the entire operation of the company was purchased by the government of Japan under the Railway Nationalization Act.