Kashima Iwakichi

... In the Meiji era, the construction industry flourished in response to the demand for Western architecture and factory construction, centered on town carpenters who had become capitalists. Since the opening of the port of Yokohama at the end of the Edo period, there was a boom in the construction of foreign trading houses in the foreign settlement, and construction companies such as Shimizu Kisuke (founder of Shimizu Construction) and Kashima Iwakichi (founder of Kashima Construction), who started out as carpenters, carried out the construction. During the same period, the civil engineering industry grew as a contracting business with the start of railway construction between Shinbashi and Yokohama in 1870 (Meiji 3) and the subsequent construction of the main railway network during the Meiji period. ...

*Some of the terminology that refers to "Kashima Iwakichi" is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…　明治になると，西洋建築や工場建築の需要に対応して，資本家化した町方棟梁を中心として建築業界は活況を呈した。江戸末期の横浜開港以来，外人居留地における外国商館建築ブームが起こり，大工棟梁から出た清水喜助(清水建設創業者)，鹿島岩吉(鹿島建設創業者)等の建築業者がこれを施工している。同時期，土木業界は，1870年(明治3)に開始された新橋～横浜間の鉄道工事および引き続いての明治年間の主要鉄道網の建設とともに請負業として成長した。…

※「鹿島岩吉」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報