Zeniya Gohei

Zeniya Gohei

Zeniya Gohei ( Japanese 銭 屋 五 兵衛 ; * January 7, 1773 , † December 31, 1852 ) was a Japanese wholesale merchant at the end of the Edo period .

Live and act

Gohei was born in Miyakoshi (now a district of Kanazawa ) into a family that was involved in sake brewing and pawnbroking. At the age of 39 he began to turn to shipping with the construction of a simple boat of the type Kosen ( 古船 ) with a load capacity of 120  koku . From that time on he used the outer port of Miyakoshi to ship rice and to trade with Matsumae on Hokkaidō . So he became the trade representative of the Maeda of Kanazawa . With the special permission to use large ships, he became very wealthy. In his prime he owned 4 ships with 2,500 koku, 6 ships with 1,500 koku, 8 ships with 1,000 koku, 2 ships with 800 koku and 13 ships with 500 koku. He also owned over 200 boats. He also set up a total of 34 branches with 168 employees in Edo , Osaka , Hyōgo , Nagasaki , Niigata , Sakata , Aomori , Hirosaki , Matsumae , Hakodate and other locations.

In 1849 Gohei began to drain Lake Kahokugata ( 河北 潟 ) north of Kanazawa in order to plant rice fields there. After a while, many fish perished and Gohei was suspected of having poisoned them. He was sent to prison and died there soon after. There are several explanations as to what the real reason for the arrest was, such as illicit trafficking. Presumably, the Kanazawa fief simply needed money and thus its assets.

Remarks

1. ↑ Today the lake is largely drained and is used for agriculture. (See coordinates above).

literature

• Suzuki, Toshihiko (Ed.): Zeniya Gohē. In: Nihon daihyakka zensho (Denshibukku-han), Shogakukan, 1996.
• Papinot, Edmond: Zeniya Gohei. In: Historical and Geographical Dictionary of Japan. Reprinted by Tuttle, 1972 edition of 1910 edition. ISBN 0-8048-0996-8 .

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