Furukawa Ichibei

Furukawa Ichibei

Furukawa Ichibei ( Japanese 古河 市 兵衛 ; born April 16, 1832 in Kyoto ; died April 5, 1903 ) was a Japanese entrepreneur during the Meiji period .

life and work

Furukawa Ichibei was the son of a family of merchants in Kyoto. He first worked for the Ono Group (小野 組, Ono-gumi) as a silk buyer, imported the equipment for a mechanical silk spinning mill in 1871, making him the first to put such a spinning mill into operation in Japan. After the bankruptcy of the Ono group in 1874, he became manager of a mining company that operated the Sōma family (草 間 家) in Tohoku . When the Sōma withdrew from the company, Furukawa acquired it with the help of Shibusawa Eiichi . In 1877, with the support of Shibusawa again, he acquired the Ashio copper mine , which was formerly owned by the shogunate and had already been closed. Investments and patient searches for new ore veins ultimately led to economic success.

In 1885 he acquired the Innai silver mine and the Ani mine. In 1887 he finally owned 12 copper mines which produced 40% of the domestic copper. He also owned 8 silver mines, a gold mine and a number of other associated companies, so that he was called the "mining king". - He not only operated mines, but soon began to produce copper cables for electrical lines. The company Furukawa Electric, founded for this purpose, then cooperated with Siemens in the joint company Fuji Denki , where Fuji is made up of "Fu" for Furukawa and "ji" for Siemens. Its subsidiary Fujitsu ("tsu" stands for "tūshin" = message transmission) is active in the information technology sector.

Furukawa avoided investing other people in his company through shares. So when he died he was able to hand over his entire kingdom to his heirs. Its achievements are, however, diminished by the fact that the ruthless copper production in Ashio led to great environmental damage.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Innai-ginzan (院内 銀山) and Ani-kōzan (阿仁 鉱 山) were mines in Akita Prefecture .

literature

• S. Noma (Ed.): Furukawa Ichibei . In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, 1993, ISBN 4-06-205938-X
• Hunter, Janet: Furukawa Ichibei . In: Concise Dictionary of Modern Japanese History. Kodansha International, 1984. ISBN 4-7700-1193-8 .

Web links

Commons : Furukawa Ichibei  - Collection of Images

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Furukawa is the family name, Ichibei the first name.