Kobe Bunzaemon

Japanese: 神戸分左衛門 - かんど・ぶんざえもん

Year of death: 20th November 1712 (18th December 1712)
Year of birth: Unknown. One of Nagoya's leading lumber merchants and new land developer in the early Edo period. A branch of the Kobe family from Inuyama, Niwa County, Owari Province (Aichi Prefecture), he opened a lumber business under the name Inuyamaya, just like his family's, and from then on, generations of his family took the name Bunzaemon. His wife's name was Matsu. During the Enpo and Tenwa eras (1673-84), he expanded into cutting lumber from the mountains in place of his elder brother Yabei of the main family, and with the family's credibility as a backdrop, he controlled lumber-producing areas such as Kiso and Hida as a loan shark who also acted as a lumber shipper. Around the Genroku period, he had his younger brother Hikoshichi stationed in Edo, where major lumber merchants such as Naraya Mozaemon and Fuyukiya Koheiji were active. He also dealt in silk, hemp, and cotton textiles, as well as dried sardines for fertilizer, and gained access to the power of the Owari domain by lending his business to the Naruse family and other retainers of the domain. In 1707, the second head of the family, Masatane Bunzaemon, began developing Daihozenshinden, later known as Kobeshinden, in Jushiyamamura, Kaisaigun (Akaigun, Aichi Prefecture) together with the main family and Izutsuya Heibei. The new fields were completely destroyed and badly damaged by several levee collapses, and other investors dropped out. However, he managed the remaining reclaimed land of 45 chobu (approximately 45 hectares) independently as an absentee landowner, and was allowed to meet with the feudal lord at the beginning of the year. <References> Jushiyamamurashi, Shinzaburo Oishi, "The circumstances surrounding the establishment of new fields contracted by townspeople - the case of Kobeshinden (Daihozenshinden)" (September 1951 issue of Shigaku Zasshi)

(Junko Hayashi)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：正徳2.11.20(1712.12.18)
生年：生年不詳
江戸前期の名古屋屈指の材木商,新田開発者。尾張国(愛知県)丹羽郡犬山の神戸家より分家,生家と同じ材木商を犬山屋の号で開業,以後代々,分左衛門を名乗る。妻の名は松。延宝・天和年間(1673～84),本家の兄弥兵衛に代わり山元からの材木切り出しにも進出し,本家の信用を背景に,材木の荷主を兼ねた高利貸商人として木曾,飛騨等の材木生産地を支配,元禄ごろには大材木商の奈良屋茂左衛門,冬木屋小平次らの活躍する江戸にも弟彦七を常駐させた。絹・麻・綿織物,肥料の干鰯なども扱う一方,尾張藩家老成瀬家などへの家中貸しにより藩権力に接近した。2代目分左衛門正種は,宝永4(1707)年より本家や井筒屋平兵衛らと海西郡十四山村(愛知県海部郡)の大宝前新田,のちの神戸新田の開発に着手。数度にわたる堤防決壊による新田全滅,大破にあって他の出資者は脱落したが,残った開拓地45町歩余(約45ha)の不在地主として独立経営に当たり,年始の藩主謁見を許された。<参考文献>『十四山村史』,大石慎三郎「町人請負新田の成立事情―神戸新田(大宝前新田)の場合」(『史学雑誌』1951年9月号)

(林順子)

出典　朝日日本歴史人物事典：（株）朝日新聞出版朝日日本歴史人物事典について　情報

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