Bunzaemon Kinokuniya

Japanese: 紀伊国屋文左衛門 - きのくにや・ぶんざえもん

Year of death: April 24, 1734 (May 26, 1734)
Year of birth: Around 1669
A wealthy Edo merchant in the mid-Edo period. He is said to have died at the age of 66. He is also known as Kibun Daijin. He was from Kii Province and is believed to have been born in Bessho, Yuasa-cho, Arida-gun, Wakayama Prefecture. His parents are unknown. He is said to have initially accumulated capital by shipping Kishu mandarins to Edo, and bringing salted salmon from Edo to Kamigata, earning huge profits. During the Jokyo era (1684-88), at the age of 20, he went to Edo and established a residence in Hon-Hachobori 3-chome, Kyobashi, and opened a large lumber wholesale business in a mansion measuring one cho square. He also set up a lumber yard in Fukagawa Lumber. Edo suffered many fires, and large construction was carried out each time, so the lumber wholesale business flourished. Kibun, in particular, colluded with senior councilor Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu and others, and gained interests as a merchant with official purveyors, making huge profits. He was involved in the construction of the Konponchudo Hall of Kan'ei-ji Temple in Ueno in February 1698, and succeeded in obtaining a contract for the materials for the construction. He is known for teaming up with Matsuki Shinzaemon, a wealthy merchant from Sunpu (Shizuoka Prefecture), and making a huge profit of 500,000 ryo in one go. He was also involved in trade with Nagasaki as a purveyor to the government, and purchased zinc at cost price. Although the zinc business was considered a risky business, it was a highly profitable product as a building material, along with lumber. It is said that he took on a coin minting business from the same year, but the details are unclear. However, from the end of the Genroku period onwards, he fell from grace due to frequent fires at his lumber yard in Fukagawa and corruption with important members of the shogunate, and went out of business as a lumber wholesaler during the Shotoku period (1711-16). He moved to the grounds of Jishōin Temple within Sensō-ji Temple, and then retired to the north of the first torii gate of Fukagawa Hachiman, where he sold tools and other items while living a refined life of haiku poetry. He had a free-spirited and bold temperament, and was known for his chivalrous ways, spending thousands of yen to close the main gate of Yoshiwara and monopolizing it. He was also surrounded by first-rate cultural figures such as the haiku poet Enomoto Kikaku. His extravagant business ventures, huge profits, and outrageous spending attracted Edoites far and wide, and he became the subject of gossip day and night. This is thought to have been a staging to entertain the shogunate's accounting officials and to gain credibility for their financial strength, and Kibun's personal private life appears to have been surprisingly modest. <References> Kantaro Ueyama, "The True Story of Kinokuniya Bunzaemon", "Kinokuniya Bunzaemon" ("Nanki Tokugawa History"), Makoto Takeuchi, "Kinokuniya Bunzaemon Research" (Hideo Tsuda, editor, "The Process of the Establishment of the Early Modern State"), Seiichi Ando, "Kinokuniya Bunzaemon" ("History Education", Vol. 15, No. 11), Yasunao Nakata, "Kinokuniya Bunzaemon" ("Financial Journal", November 1974 issue)

(Yasunao Nakata)

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

Japanese:

没年：享保19.4.24(1734.5.26)
生年：寛文9頃(1669)
江戸中期の江戸の豪商。没年66歳といわれる。紀文大尽とも。紀伊国の出身で,現在の和歌山県有田郡湯浅町別所の生まれと推定される。両親は不詳。はじめ紀州のみかんを江戸に回漕し,江戸から塩鮭を上方にもたらして巨利を得,当初の資本を蓄積したと伝えられる。貞享年間(1684～88)20歳のころ江戸に出,京橋本八丁堀3丁目に居所を構え,一町四方の屋敷に大きな材木問屋を開き,また材木置場を深川木場に置いた。江戸は火災が多く,その都度大建築が行われ,材木問屋は繁盛を極めた。なかでも紀文は老中柳沢吉保らと結託し,御用達商人として利権を得て巨利を占めた。元禄11(1698)年2月の上野寛永寺根本中堂の普請造営に関与し,その用材請負に成功,駿府(静岡県)の豪商松木新左衛門と組んで,一挙に金50万両の巨利を得たことは有名。また御用達として長崎貿易にも関係し,亜鉛(とたん)を原価で仕入れている。亜鉛の営業はリスクの多い商いとされていたが,材木とともに建築用材として利益の大きな商品であった。同14年以降,鋳銭事業を請け負ったといわれるが詳らかでない。ところが元禄末以降,深川の材木置場のたびたびの火災による損害や,幕閣要人との不正などもあって失脚し,正徳年間(1711～16)には材木問屋を廃業。浅草寺内慈昌院地内に移り,次いで深川八幡の一の鳥居北側に隠棲し,道具類の売り食いをする一方,風流な俳諧の生活に生涯を過ごした。その気質は闊達で豪快,任侠をこととし,千金を投じて吉原の大門を閉め独占するなどの豪遊があった。取り巻きにも俳人の榎本其角ら一流の文化人がついていた。事業も豪快,利益も巨額,浪費もまたすさまじかったことが,江戸っ子を広くひきつけ,日夜の噂の種になった。このことは幕府の勘定方役人の供応と,その財力についての信用を得るための演出とも考えられ,紀文個人の私生活は意外と質素なものがあったようだ。<参考文献>上山勘太郎『実伝紀伊国屋文左衛門』,『紀伊国屋文左衛門』(『南紀徳川史』),竹内誠「紀伊国屋文左衛門考証」(津田秀夫編『近世国家の成立過程』),安藤精一「紀伊国屋文左衛門」(『歴史教育』15巻11号),中田易直「紀伊国屋文左衛門」(『金融ジャーナル』1974年11月号)

(中田易直)

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