Koitsumi

Japanese: 肥富 - こいつみ

Year of birth: Year of birth and death unknown. A Hakata merchant from the Muromachi period. He returned from Ming China in the early years of the Oei era and persuaded Ashikaga Yoshimitsu of the benefits of communication with Ming China, which led Yoshimitsu to plan a ship to Ming China in 1401. On that occasion, he was sent to Ming China as a deputy envoy along with the main envoy Soa, and returned to Japan the following year. There is a view that Hitomi is the same as the Koizumi clan, a branch of the Kobayakawa clan of Aki (Hiroshima Prefecture). He was the person who initiated the opening of relations between Japan and Ming China, and it was unusual for a Hakata merchant to serve as an envoy to Ming China (the Gozan monks were later to take up the post). <References> Obada Jun, "Research on the History of Trade between Japan and China in the Middle Ages," Tanaka Takeo, "History of Foreign Relations in the Middle Ages," Naganuma Masami, "Research on the Maritime History of Japan"

(Shuichi Seki)

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

Japanese:

生年：生没年不詳
室町時代の博多商人。応永の初年に明から帰国し,足利義満に明との通信(通交)の利を説き,これにより義満は応永8(1401)年の遣明船を計画した。その際,正使祖阿と共に副使として明に派遣され,翌年帰国した。肥富を安芸(広島県)の小早川氏の分族小泉氏に比定する見解がある。日明関係を開く契機になった人物であり,博多商人が遣明使節を務めるのは異例(以後は五山僧)である。<参考文献>小葉田淳『中世日支通交貿易史の研究』,田中健夫『中世対外関係史』,長沼賢海『日本海事史研究』

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