- Japanese: 三井八郎右衛門 (Mitsui Hachirouemon)
Mitsui Hachirôemon was a name passed down between heads of the Edo period currency exchange & dry goods wholesaling business Echigo-ya, which later developed into the Mitsui zaibatsu corporation. The Echigo-ya was also an official purveyor (goyô shônin) to the shogunate.
Heads of the business came from eleven different households, who shared property/ownership between them, with each company head taking on the name Mitsui Hachirôemon in turn. They included:
- Takahira, second head of the Kita family, credited with establishing the family codes and records of family history
- Takatomi, first head of the Isarago family, credited with establishing the organization/policies of the shop
- Takaharu, first head of the Shinmachi family, credited with combining the family codes and business records
- Takafusa, third head of the Kita family, credited with compiling the chônin kôken roku
- Takakata, second head of the Shinmachi family
- Takami, fourth head of the Kita family
- Takayo, third head of the Shinmachi family
- Takanori, third head of the Isarago family
- Takakiyo, fifth head of the Kita family
- Takasuke, sixth head of the Kita family
- Takaga, fifth head of the Shinmachi family
- Takamasu, sixth head of the Shinmachi family
- Takafuku, eighth head of the Kita family, credited with the revival of the business around the time of the Meiji Restoration
- Takarô, ninth head of the Kita family
- Takamune, tenth head of the Kita family, credited with establishing the business as a zaibatsu in the modern sense
- Takakimi, eleventh head of the Kita family
A home belonging to the 11th Mitsui Hachirôemon, Mitsui Takakimi, stands today in the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum. Originally built in the Nishi-azabu neighborhood of Minato-ku, Tokyo, in 1952, it incorporates a guest room and dining room built on Aburanokôji in Kyoto in 1897 and then relocated to Tokyo; the storehouse attached to the house also dates to the early Meiji period - specifically, 1874. Fusuma (sliding door) paintings in the home were completed in the Meiji period by artists of the Maruyama-Shijô school.
References
- Edo-Tokyo Open-Air Architectural Museum, English language brochure/pamphlet (2010), p6.
- "Mitsui Hachirôemon," Sekai daihyakka jiten 世界大百科事典, Hitachi Solutions, 2012.
- Plaque on-site at Mitsui Hachirôemon Residence, Edo-Tokyo Open-Air Architectural Museum.