Kinpara Meizen

Japanese: 金原明善 - きんぱら・めいぜん

Year of death: January 14, 1923
Year of birth: Tenpo 3.6.7 (1832.7.4)
Tenryu River flood control and forestry conservation expert and businessman in the Meiji period. The eldest son of Kanehara Kyuemon Kichu (Kyuhei), a wealthy farmer from Yasuma Village, Nagakami County, Totomi Province (Hamamatsu City), and his wife Shiga. His childhood name was Yaichiro, and he later took the name Kyuemon VIII. In 1872 (Meiji 5), he took the name Meizen. At the end of the Edo period, he served as a village headman and organized the household affairs of the Matsudaira clan, the feudal lord, while also opening a sales business (export business) in Yokohama, but failed. After the Meiji Restoration, he became head of household and ward chief, but in 1822, he was ordered by Hamamatsu Prefecture to attach to the levee department, and decided to dedicate himself to his long-cherished dream of flood control of the Tenryu River, and in 1824, he founded the Tenryu River Levee Company. The following year, he became president and managing director of the renamed River Control Cooperation Company, and planned the improvement of the Tenryu River, which was prone to flooding, as well as the repair of levees and the construction of bridges. In 1936, he liquidated his family assets and donated the assessed amount of over 60,000 yen to the basic assets of the River Control Cooperation Society, with the aim of developing the business; however, from around 1942, disputes arose with the villages downstream, and as flood control measures for major rivers became direct government construction, the River Control Cooperation Society was dissolved in 1943. Having withdrawn from flood control work, Meizen embarked on his second long-cherished wish, reforestation work in the upper reaches of the Tenryu River. His motivation for this was apparently hearing from the government's employed engineer, Dutchman I. Lindau, about the need for watershed conservation forests. In 1936, he applied to the Shizuoka Forestry Office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce to plant 2.7 million cedar and cypress seedlings in 600 hectares of government forest in Sejiri Village, Toyota County (Tatsuyama Village, Iwata County), Shizuoka Prefecture, and was granted permission. Over the next 13 years, he planted 2.92 million trees over approximately 760 hectares, which he donated in 1956. He also purchased 1,200 hectares of forest in the surrounding area, planting 4 million cedar and cypress trees and calling it the Kanbara Forest. In 1932, he donated this to the state and established the Kanbara Waterworks Foundation for the Mikatagahara irrigation and waterworks project. He was also involved in the reorganization of Maruya Bank, a bank he did business with in Tokyo, and in 1942 established the Tozato Exchange Store, which later became the Kanbara Bank in 1953. He was also active in the business world, establishing the Tenryu Transport Company for transporting timber using the newly opened Tokaido Railway. As for social work, he became involved in the protection of people who had completed their sentences from 1938 onwards, founding the Shizuoka Kanzenkai and the Hamamatsu Kanzenkai, and in 1946 established the Released Prisoners Protection Company. He served as mayor of Wada village in his hometown from 1940 to 1942. Currently, the Meizen Memorial Hall (Hamamatsu City) is located near his birthplace. <References>Kanbara Waterworks Foundation, "Kanbara Meizen" and "Kanbara Meizen Materials" volumes 1 and 2; Suzuki Yotaro, "History of the Kanbara Waterworks Foundation"

(Umino Fukuju)

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

Japanese:

没年：大正12.1.14(1923)
生年：天保3.6.7(1832.7.4)
明治期の天竜川治水・治山家,実業家。遠江国長上郡安間村(浜松市)の豪農金原久右衛門軌忠(久平)と妻志賀の長男。幼名弥一郎,のち8代目久右衛門を襲名。明治5(1872)年より明善を名乗る。幕末に名主を務め,領主松平家の家政整理をする一方,横浜に売込商(輸出商)を出店したが失敗。維新後戸長,区長となったが,5年浜松県より堤防方付属を命ぜられたのを機に,宿願の天竜川治水事業に挺身することを決意し,7年天竜川堤防会社を設立。翌年改称した治河協力社総裁専務となり,水害が頻繁する天竜川河川改修と堤防修築,架橋などを計画した。11年には家産を処分し,評価額6万余円を治河協力社の基本財産に寄付し事業の発展を策したが,17年ごろから下流域諸村と紛議を生じ,また大河川治水対策が政府直轄工事となったため,18年治河協力社を解散。治水事業から手を引いた明善は,第2の宿願である天竜川上流域の植林事業に着手した。御雇技師オランダ人I.リンドウから水源涵養林の必要を聞いたのが動機という。18年静岡県豊田郡瀬尻村(磐田郡竜山村)の官林600haに杉,檜苗270万本の栽植を農商務省静岡山林事務所へ出願して許され,以後13年間の植林は約760ha,292万本におよんだが,31年これを献納した。また,その周辺地で買収した山林1200haにも杉,檜400万本を植林し金原林と称したが,37年これも国に寄付して三方原の灌漑疎水事業のための金原疎水財団を設立した。一方,東京の取引先銀行丸屋銀行の整理にかかわり,17年東里為替店を設立,のち33年金原銀行とした。また開通した東海道鉄道を利用して木材運送のための天竜運輸会社を設立するなど実業面でも活躍したが,社会事業としては13年以降刑期を終えた人の保護事業に関与し,静岡勧善会,浜松勧善会を設立,21年には出獄人保護会社を設立した。40～42年郷里の和田村村長。現在,生家近くに明善記念館(浜松市)がある。<参考文献>金原治山治水財団『金原明善』,同『金原明善資料』上下,鈴木要太郎『金原治山治水財団史』

(海野福寿)

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