Iba Sen was founded by Kanzaemon Ibaya, a merchant from Hamamatsu who went to Edo with Ieyasu Tokugawa. At the time of its founding, Iba Sen was in Nihonbashi, Edo, where it was used by the shogunate and mainly dealt with washi paper, paper products, bamboo products, etc.

In the late Edo period, he began to produce uchiwa fans, and became a publisher of popular painters such as the first generation Utagawa Toyokuni, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, and Utagawa Hiroshige, and sold ukiyo・e prints on uchiwa, gaining popularity.