Omi merchants

During the Edo period, this term refers to merchants from Omi who had great influence in the commercial world, setting up shop in Edo, Osaka, Kyoto and other areas. Omi was a key transportation hub connecting Kyoto to the Hokuriku and eastern regions, and merchants were active there as early as the Kamakura period. In the Muromachi period, commerce developed through markets, za, and peddling. Merchants from the three counties of Koto, Gamo, Kanzaki, and Aichi, were particularly active, forming caravans and traveling peddling goods between Kyoto and the areas of Mino, Ise, Wakasa, and Echizen, pulling packhorses or shouldering loads. In the Edo period, the Omi merchants' trade expanded nationwide, and the products they handled ranged from Omi-produced linen, mosquito nets, and tatami mats to tea, ginned cotton, cotton fabrics, safflower, raw silk, lacquerware, medicines, and other local products from each region they visited. Their business model began as peddlers, and once they had developed a market and accumulated capital, they opened stores in key locations. Some of them switched to retail sales when they opened stores, while others used their stores as a base to expand their peddling area to the surrounding areas. However, when they became big merchants, they eventually turned their stores into stores, and made large profits by using the "product circulation" business method of shipping products between the stores they had set up in various regions. Peddling was thus a distinctive feature of the Omi merchants, and in the early modern period, many of them began as individual peddlers and made their living, so they were commonly referred to as "thousand-ryo balances." The capital accumulated through commerce was also used in financial businesses such as pawnbroking and money lending, and many of them lent money to large merchants who had their main stores in their hometowns in Omi, or in Nihonbashi in Edo, Honmachi in Osaka, Sanjo-dori in Kyoto, etc. In terms of industrial development, Hino merchants established breweries such as sake and soy sauce in various parts of the Kanto region, and merchants from Hachiman, Yanagawa, and Satsuma advanced into Ezo (Hokkaido) and developed fishing grounds.

[Masuo Murai]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

江戸時代に、江戸・大坂・京都をはじめ各地に店舗を構え、商業界に大きな勢力を有した近江出身の商人をさした呼称。近江は、京都から北陸・東国に通じる交通上の要地にあたり、早く鎌倉時代から商人の活動がみられ、室町時代になると市(いち)、座、行商による商業が発達した。なかでも蒲生(がもう)、神崎(かんざき)、愛知(えち)の湖東三郡の商人の行動は活発で、彼らは集団で隊商を組み、駄馬を引き、または荷を背負って、美濃(みの)、伊勢(いせ)、若狭(わかさ)、越前(えちぜん)方面と京都を結んで行商して歩いた。江戸時代に入ると近江商人の商域は全国に拡大し、その取り扱い商品は近江産の麻布、蚊帳(かや)、畳表から始まり、茶、繰綿(くりわた)、木綿太物(もめんふともの)、紅花(べにばな)、生糸、漆器、薬など営業先各地の各種物産に及んだ。彼らの商業の形態は、まず行商に始まり、市場の開拓、資本の蓄積ができると要地に出店を開設した。出店の開設とともに店舗営業に移るものもあり、また出店を基点に周辺に行商圏を拡大するものもあった。しかし大商人になると、結局は出店を店舗とし、各地に設けた店舗網の間に産物を回送する「産物廻(まわ)し」の商法によって大きな利益をあげた。このように行商は近江商人の特色であり、しかも近世では個人行商から始めて産をなすものが多かったので、俗に「千両天秤(てんびん)」と称した。商業によって蓄積した資本は質屋、金貸しなど金融業にも回され、近江出身地の本店や、江戸の日本橋、大坂の本町、京都の三条通などに店舗を構えた大商人には大名貸しを行うものも多かった。また産業開発においても、日野商人が関東各地に酒、しょうゆなどの醸造業をおこし、あるいは八幡(はちまん)商人、柳川、薩摩(さつま)の両浜商人が蝦夷(えぞ)地（北海道）に進出して漁場の開発にあたったりした。

［村井益男］

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