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Before diving in — Vol. 2 sets out the author’s framing and caveats.
Vol. 1 and Vol. 3 centered on Chubei Ito, the founder of Itochu Corporation and Marubeni Corporation. Of course, there are many other notable Ohmi Shonin (merchants) and companies they founded that continue to operate today.
Nippon Life Insurance (Nissay) may be among the surviving companies most readily recognizable to readers. As one of Japan’s largest institutional investors in the private sector, many readers in the financial industry will recognize the Nissay name. The company was founded by Sukesaburo Hirose, an Ohmi Shonin from Hikone, who rallied investors from the Kansai business community to get the company off the ground.
The founder of lingerie maker Wacoal (now Wacoal Holdings), Koichi Tsukamotowas born in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, in the Tohoku region, but his family lineage traces back to a textile wholesaler in Ohmi. He also graduated fromHachiman Commercial School(now Hachiman Commercial Senior High School), which produced many Ohmi Shonin. In 1946, Tsukamoto founded Wako Shoji. The “Wa” in Wako is written with a kanji meaning “harmony” or “tranquility,” while “ko” was taken from a character in Goshu, an alternate name for Ohmi. The company was renamed Wacoal in 1957. “Wacoa” is pronounced the same as “Wako,” and the final “l” is a romanized rendering of a kanji meaning “to hold” or “to retain.”
There is one more company worth mentioning. Nishikawa, known in Japan as “Futon no Nishikawa” (Nishikawa of the futons), is a venerable company founded in 1566 by Jin-emon Nishikawa in what is now Omihachiman City. It remains in operation to this day.
Theories on the Origins of the Ohmi Shonin
There are, of course, many more notablemerchants and associated companies. The central question for this installment is: why did Ohmi produce such a remarkable concentration of businesses and businesspeople?
Several theories have been proposed to explain the origins of the Ohmi Shonin.
J. F. Oberlin University(the name may suggest an American institution, but J. F. Oberlin University is a Japanese private university — its founder was a graduate of Oberlin College in the United States), a part-time lecturer at J. F. Oberlin University and a research fellow at the Institute of Buddhist Economics at Komazawa University, has described the range of established views on why the Ohmi region produced so many businesspeople: “Historically, various theories have been proposed to explain why so many merchants emerged from this region, including the ‘Naturalized Immigrant Theory,’ the ‘Rakuichi Theory,’ and the ‘Fragmented Fiefdom Theory.’”
The Naturalized Immigrant Theory holds that migrants from the Korean Peninsula and the Chinese continent,who arrived in Japan between ancient times and the medieval period, introduced technologies such as iron production toOhmi, giving the region a lasting business advantage in subsequent eras. The “Rakuichi” in the Rakuichi Theory refers to a policy adopted by warlords of the Azuchi-Momoyama period — Oda Nobunaga foremost among them — permitting free commerce in the territories under their control. Ohmi was in fact home to Azuchi Castle, Nobunaga’s seat of power, and Hachiman-yama Castle, the stronghold of Toyotomi Hidetsugu (both located in present-day Omihachiman City), and rakuichi markets were held in the castle townsthat grew up around them. The Fragmented Fiefdom Theory locates the origins of the Ohmi Shonin in the political geography of the Toyotomi and Tokugawa regimes:Ohmi — and the Konan region in particular, the area south of Lake Biwa — was fragmented into numerous small administrative units, with individual villages often governed by multiple lords simultaneously. Because each unit was so small, trade with other regions became a practical necessity, and local industries flourished accordingly. Moreover, while freedom of occupation, residence, and movement was strictly curtailed throughout Edo-period Japan, restrictions in Ohmi appear to have been comparatively lax — a condition the theory identifies as fertile ground for commercial enterprise.
Challenging these long-standing theories is Eiichiro Ogura, a former professor in the Faculty of Economics at Shiga University. In his book Ohmi Shonin no Riinen: Zohoban Ohmi Shonin Kakun Senshu, Ogura argues against both the Naturalized Immigrant Theory and the Rakuichi Theory:
There is a theory that the Ohmi Shonin descended from the merchants of the miyaza guild system. (…)
It is well known that Ohmi in that era had powerful miyaza guilds and rakuichi-rakuza free markets, and that medieval merchants thrived there. On this basis, people argue that Ohmi has a tradition or disposition toward commerce, that it is a “land of merchants.” The “Naturalized Immigrant Theory” and the “Warrior-Origin Theory” are of the same variety — plausible-sounding, but impossible to substantiate empirically.
(…)
Neither family name, genealogy, nor place of origin connects the two groups. The Warring States period stands between them, and Ohmi was frequently at the center of its conflicts. No matter how one traces the lineage, the connection simply does not hold.*²
Ogura similarly rejects two other common explanations: that Ohmi’s position as a transportation hub gave rise to so many Shonin, and that the second and third sons of farming families, entering apprenticeships (detchi-boko), became merchants. Ogura himself, meanwhile, advocates what he calls the “Snowmelt Theory” — an idea that shares common ground with the Fragmented Fiefdom Theory described above.
Ohmi: Crossroads of National Roads and Railways
The author finds partial truth in both the traditional theories and Ogura’s framework, while fully endorsing neither. This is not fence-sitting —it is what emerges from on-the-ground reporting in Ohmi.
A municipal official from Higashi-Omi City who guided the author through the Hikoshiro Fujii residence in Gokasho, for instance, described the origins of the Ohmi Shonin in these terms: “The eldest son inherited the family farm, and the second and third sons, with no land to inherit, became Shonin.”Hikoshiro Fujii, it should be noted, was an Ohmi Shonin who made his fortune manufacturing and selling “Ski Yarn.”
At the Omihachiman City Museum, meanwhile, the author found explanatory text conveying that the existence of rakuichi markets was a formative seed from which theOhmi Shonin emerged.
It therefore seems likely, as a starting point, that the reasons merchants arose differed considerably from region to region. As noted inVol. 2, “Ohmi Shonin” is an umbrella term that admits of regional subcategories: the Yahata, the Takashima, the Obata, and others. (It is worth noting that Ogura’s own research takes a similar region-by-region approach.)
Pressing the analysis further, it seems likely that the reasons behind the emergence of Shonin differed not only by region but by household. Some will have been second or third sons of farming families who established merchant houses; others may have been artisans who transitioned into trade. In the case of Hikoshiro Fujii, it was his elder brother’s entry into politics that led him to take over the family’smerchant business — and to produce a hit product. In short, the author’s sense is that the circumstances behind each individual Shonin varied enormously, whether within a given region or irrespective of region entirely.Certain tendencies may emerge when examining merchants by locality,but they should not be overstated.
On top of all this, the author believes that Ohmi’s role as a transportation hub was itself a significant factor —and not one to be dismissed. Ogura, who rejects this view, writes: “As one can see from the fact that no Ohmi Shonin emerged from major cities such as Otsu, Imazu, Hikone, or Nagahama — all of which fully satisfy those conditions (note: i.e., being situated at transportation hubs) — [the theory does not hold].”
Yet, as noted above, Hikone did produce Sukesaburo Hirose. Imazu was home to Gihei Iida*³and Nihei Ohtani*⁴.Iida was an Ohmi Shoninwho dealt in rice; his adopted son, Shinshichi Iida, would go on to found what is now the Takashimaya department store. Ohtani was the de facto founder of Gyosei, a publisher of law compilations and legal precedent collections. From NagahamacameMasuzo Furukawa, a manga artist and founding member of Mandarake.*It must be conceded, however, that Otsu —now the prefectural capital of Shiga — has not produced any particularly notable businesspeople or entrepreneurs.
One must also bear in mind that Ogura’s primary subject of inquiry is the Ohmi Shonin of the Edo period. The figures from Imazu, Hikone, and Nagahama cited here were active from the Meiji era onward —falling, in other words, outside the scope of Ogura’s research.
What, then, does it actually mean to say that Ohmi was a transportation hub?
Please refer to the map below.
This map has been centered, as much as possible, on National Route 8. Within Shiga Prefecture, National Route 8 corresponds to the old Nakasendo highway, and in places the two roads are in fact identical or run parallel to each other.The Nakasendo was one of the Gokaido — the Five Routes of the Edo period — and thus one of the most important arterial roads in the country.
The map should allow readers to identify place names that have appeared throughout this series, including Hikone and Omihachiman(Ohmi-Hachiman). Maibara, visible at the top of the map, is an important transportation hub not only historically but in the present day as well.For travelers heading to Ohmi by Tokaido Shinkansen from Tokyo, Maibara is the gateway — it is the only Tokaido Shinkansen station in Ohmi, i.e., in Shiga Prefecture.There are also plans to route the Hokuriku Shinkansen — currently open as far as Tsuruga from Tokyo, with construction ongoing beyond — through Maibara.
Please also refer to this second map.
With Ohmi-Hachiman visible in the upper portion, this map shows the area slightly to the south of the previous one. National Route 1 runs along the lower portion of the map. This road corresponds to the old Tokaido highway — another of the Gokaido Five Routes. The basin visible to the left of Otsu is Kyoto.
In other words, Ohmi was not only traversed by roads that served as the arteries of Japan — it also sat immediately adjacent to Kyoto, which served as the nation’s capital for much of its history. And Kyoto was not the only former capital nearby: Osaka and Nara are also in the vicinity, andOtsu in Ohmi itself was once the seat of imperial government. In terms of roads, north of the Nakasendo from Ohmi runs the Hokkoku Kaido, a route toward the Hokuriku region. As the author expects to address in a future installment, the Kitamaebune — the coastal trading vessels that the Ohmi Shonin used for commerce — operated along maritime routes originating in Hokuriku.
The circumstances that gave rise to each Ohmi Shonin differed from merchant to merchant. What sustained those merchants of such varied origins was Ohmi’s geographic advantage — that, in sum, is the conclusion the author reaches in attempting to account for the emergence of the Ohmi Shonin.
*¹“The Economic Ethics and Significance of Faith among the Ohmi Shonin: Centering on the Relationship between Yuuken Matsui and the Jodo Shinshu Monk Kojuin Tokuryu” — Seigo Tsujii
*²Ohmi Shonin no Riinen: Zohoban Ohmi Shonin Kakun Senshu, Eiichiro Ogura/Sunrise Publishing
*³Takashima City Library, Takashima Monoshiri Hyakka: “Takashimaya”
*⁴Gyosei, “Company History”
*⁵Sanpo-yoshi, Issue 16 / AKINDO Committee
