was a Japanese entrepreneur who founded the ''Ōkura-gumi'' '' zaibatsu'', which later became the Taisei Corporation, and the ''Ōkura Shōgyō Gakkō'' ("Okura Commerce School") which later became Tokyo University of Economics in 1949. In contrast to most of the ''zaibatsu'', the Ōkura ''zaibatsu'' was founded by someone from the

peasant class A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasants ...

Biography

Ōkura was born in

Echigo Province was an old province in north-central Japan, on the shores of the Sea of Japan. It bordered on Uzen, Iwashiro, Kōzuke, Shinano, and Etchū Provinces. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Echigo''" in . It corresponds today to Niigata ...

, and moved to

Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

and worked for three years before starting his own grocery store in 1857. After selling groceries for eight years, he became a weapons dealer during the turbulent years between the arrival of the

Black Ships The Black Ships (in ja, 黒船, translit=kurofune, Edo period term) was the name given to Western vessels arriving in Japan in the 16th and 19th centuries. In 1543 Portuguese initiated the first contacts, establishing a trade route linking G ...

and the eventual overthrow in 1867 of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Despite being born a peasant, he became an expert in

Shindō Munen-ryū is a Japanese '' koryū'' martial art school founded by Fukui Hyōemon Yoshihira (福井兵右衛門嘉平) in the early 18th century. The style rapidly gained popularity throughout Japan due to the efforts of Togasaki Kumataro, Okada Junmatsu, ...

. He became one of the principal business investors of the original Imperial Hotel completed in 1890. Kihachiro's son, Kishichirō, is credited with introducing the automobile into

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Kihachiro, who made a fortune in his lifetime and lived in Toranomon, was a collector of

Oriental The Orient is a term for the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of ''Occident'', the Western World. In English, it is largely a metonym for, and coterminous with, the ...

antiques. In fear of valuable artworks flowing out to other countries, he built Japan’s first private museum, the Ōkura Shukokan, in 1917 by donating many cultural assets he had collected, the land, and the funds. The 5-story building stood on a property of about 10,000 square meters (2.5 acres), but it was damaged in the

1923 Great Kantō earthquake The struck the Kantō Plain on the main Japanese island of Honshū at 11:58:44 JST (02:58:44 UTC) on Saturday, September 1, 1923. Varied accounts indicate the duration of the earthquake was between four and ten minutes. Extensive firestorms an ...

. The Ōkura Shukokan that now stands adjacent to the Hotel Ōkura was rebuilt in 1928; it was based on a design by Itō Chūta, who is known for his design for Tsukiji Honganji Temple, and is designated as a cultural asset of Japan. The museum houses 2,000 pieces of Oriental paintings and sculptures, including such national treasures as the wooden statue of

Samantabhadra Samantabhadra (Lit. "All Good", or "Always Auspicious") may refer to: * Samantabhadra (Bodhisattva), a bodhisattva in Mahayana Buddhism associated with practice and meditation * ''Samantabhadra'' (Tibetan: ''Kuntu Zangpo''), the name of a Buddha, ...

and 35,000 volumes of Chinese literature.Prominent People of Minato City
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Honors

Japanese

*Medal of Honor with Yellow Ribbon (6 November 1888) *Medal of Merit of the Japanese Red Cross (November 1898) *Baron (1 December 1915) *Grand Cordon of the

Order of the Sacred Treasure The is a Japanese order, established on 4 January 1888 by Emperor Meiji as the Order of Meiji. Originally awarded in eight classes (from 8th to 1st, in ascending order of importance), since 2003 it has been awarded in six classes, the lowest ...

(11 February 1924; Second Class: 26 September 1907) *Grand Cordon of the

Order of the Rising Sun The is a Japanese order, established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji. The Order was the first national decoration awarded by the Japanese government, created on 10 April 1875 by decree of the Council of State. The badge features rays of sunlight ...

(20 January 1928; Third Class: 3 November 1902; Fourth Class: 28 October 1897)

Others

*Second Class, Second Grade of the Imperial Order of the Double Dragon of China (10 February 1912) *Grand Cordon of the Precious Golden Harvest of the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

(November 1917; Second Class: 26 January 1915) *Grand Cordon of the Order of the Eight Trigrams of the Empire of Korea (December 1908) *Grand Cross of the Order of Leopold II of Belgium (29 October 1926)

References

External links