Matsudaira Iwaya

Japanese: 岩谷松平 - いわや・まつへい

Year of death: March 10, 1920
Year of birth: 2/2/1849 (2/24/1849)
A Meiji-era businessman and tobacco trader. He completely changed the way Japanese people smoked, from pipe-smoked shredded tobacco to paper-smoked cigarettes. He was born in Satsuma Province (Kagoshima Prefecture). In 1877 (Meiji 10), his house was burned down during the Seinan War, and he moved to Tokyo and opened a store in Ginza selling kimono and fabrics, a specialty of Satsuma. He sold Satsuma pickpockets and Kokubu shredded tobacco, but then he started manufacturing paper-smoked cigarettes and sold "Tengu tobacco." He ran flashy advertising campaigns that appealed to patriotism, took in exiled prisoners, and employed beggars as tobacco craftsmen, calling himself the "boss of the national interest." He sparked a fierce market share war with Murai Yoshibei's Murai Brothers Company, which rose to prominence with its two-sided paper-smoked cigarettes, and engaged in an insulting advertising battle, but after the passage of the Monopoly Bill in 1937, he switched to the pig farming business. <References> Hoichi Iwasaki, "History of the Meiji Tobacco Industry," Mitsuo Sekii, "People of the Tobacco War" (Dentsu Soken ed., "By-LINE," November 1993 issue)

(Mitsuo Sekii)

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

Japanese:

没年：大正9.3.10(1920)
生年：嘉永2.2.2(1849.2.24)
明治時代の実業家,たばこ業者。日本人の喫煙スタイルを煙管で吸う刻みたばこから紙巻きたばこに一変させた。薩摩国(鹿児島県)生まれ。明治10(1877)年西南戦争で家を焼かれ,上京して銀座に薩摩名産の呉服太物店を開店。薩摩がすりや国分の刻みたばこなどを販売したが,口付き紙巻きたばこの製造に乗り出して「天狗煙草」を販売。愛国心に訴えた派手な宣伝を繰り広げ,免囚を引き取ったり,物乞いをたばこ職人に雇って「国益の親玉」と称した。両切り紙巻きたばこで頭角を現した村井吉兵衛の村井兄弟会社と凄絶なシェア戦争を巻き起こし,罵り合いの広告合戦を展開するが,37年の専売法案の可決後,養豚事業に転身した。<参考文献>岩崎穂一『明治煙草業史』,関井光男「煙草戦争の人々」(電通総研編『By‐LINE』1993年11月号)

(関井光男)

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