Takeo Yamanobe

Japanese: 山辺丈夫 - やまのべ・たけお

Year of death: May 14, 1920
Year of birth: December 8, 1851 (December 30, 1851)
An engineer and businessman during the Meiji and Taisho periods. Born in Tsuwano Town, Kashima County, Iwami Province (Shimane Prefecture), as the second son of Shimizu Kakusuke and Sadoko, a samurai of the Tsuwano Domain. In 1854, he was adopted by Yamabe Zenzo, a samurai of the Tsuwano Domain. Renowned for his genius from an early age, he entered the domain school, Yorokan, in 1865. During the years leading up to the Meiji Restoration, he was conscripted into the government army. From 1870, he studied under Fukuba Misato, missionaries J.H. Barra, and Nishi Amane in Tokyo and Yokohama, as well as at the Osaka branch of Keio Gijuku, and also worked as an elementary school teacher in Osaka. From 1875, he taught English to Kamei Tsuneaki, the adopted son of the former domain lord, and accompanied Tsuneaki to England in 1887. He entered the University of London and studied economics under Jevons and others. At the request of Shibusawa Eiichi, who aimed to establish a spinning company with 10,000 spindles in Japan, he moved to King's College in March 1887 to study mechanical engineering to master spinning techniques. In September of the same year, he began an internship in the spinning industry at a spinning factory in Blackburn. In July 1888, he returned to Japan with Tsuneaki. Over the next few years, he worked hard to establish the new spinning company in technical areas such as investigating power, selecting and purchasing spinning machines, and training engineers. In 1891, the year after the founding of Osaka Spinning Company, he became the construction manager. In 1897, he founded Osaka Weaving Company (absorbed by Osaka Spinning in 1890). He subsequently became a director at Osaka Spinning in 1893, managing director in 1894, and president in 1896. After Osaka Spinning merged with Mie Spinning in 1914 to form Toyo Spinning, he remained president of the company until 1915. He also served as chairman of the Greater Japan Spinners' Association and a special committee member of the Osaka Chamber of Commerce. He had a relationship with Mori Ogai, who was from the same hometown, and the inscription on Yamabe's monument erected in Abeno, Osaka, was written by Ogai, but Ogai had passed away by the time the monument was unveiled in 1923.

(Takeshi Abe)

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

Japanese:

没年：大正9.5.14(1920)
生年：嘉永4.12.8(1851.12.30)
明治大正期の技術者,実業家。石見国(島根県)鹿足郡津和野町に津和野藩士清水格亮と佐渡子の次男として生まれる。安政1(1854)年津和野藩士山辺善蔵の養子となる。幼少より英才の誉れが高く慶応1(1865)年藩校養老館へ入校。幕末維新の数年間官軍に徴兵。明治3(1870)年以降東京,横浜で福羽美静,宣教師J.H.バラ,西周らに,また大阪慶応義塾分校に学び,大阪では小学校教員も勤務。8年より旧藩主の養嗣子亀井茲明に英語を教授し,10年茲明に随行し渡英。ロンドン大学に入学し,ジェボンズらから経済学を学ぶ。日本で1万錘規模の紡績会社設立をめざす渋沢栄一の要請を受けて紡績技術を習得するため12年3月キングス・カレッジに移り機械工学の勉強を開始。同年9月よりブラックバーン市の紡績工場で紡績業の実習。13年7月茲明と共に帰国した。以後数年間,動力の調査,紡機の選定と購入,技術者の指導など技術関連で新紡績会社設立に尽力。大阪紡績会社創立の翌16年工務支配人。20年大阪織布会社創立(1890年大阪紡績に吸収)。以後大阪紡績において28年取締役,29年専務取締役,31年社長に就任。大正3(1914)年大阪紡績が三重紡績と合併して東洋紡績が成立したのちも5年まで同社社長。大日本紡績聯合会委員長,大阪商業会議所特別委員も歴任。同郷の森鴎外と交流があり,大阪阿倍野に立てられた山辺の碑文は鴎外によって書かれたが,碑が公開された大正12年には鴎外も死去していた。<参考文献>宇野米吉編『山辺丈夫君小伝』,石川安次郎編『孤山の片影』

(阿部武司)

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