was a Japanese businessman, national politician and philanthropist.

Early life and career

Born into an established merchant family in Yamanashi,

Yamanashi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Yamanashi Prefecture has a population of 787,592 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 4,465 km2 (1,724 sq mi). Yamanashi Prefecture borders Saitama Prefecture to the n ...

, he moved to Tokyo in 1897, and became independently wealthy through stock investments. Nezu was elected as a member of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

in the

National Diet , transcription_name = ''Kokkai'' , legislature = 215th Session of the National Diet , coa_pic = Flag of Japan.svg , house_type = Bicameral , houses = , foundation=29 November 1890(), leader1_type ...

in 1904 and won three subsequent reelections. He was elevated to the House of Peers in 1926. In 1905 Nezu became President of

Tobu Railway is a Japanese commuter railway and ''keiretsu'' holding company in the Greater Tokyo Area as well as an intercity and regional operator in the Kantō region. Excluding the Japan Railways Group companies, Tobu's rail system is the second longes ...

and successfully helped to grow the company to one of the largest private rail operators in the Kanto region. Other business interests included managerial and shareholding roles in Tokyo Basha Tetsudo (Tokyo Horse-Drawn Carriage Railways), Tokyo Dento (Tokyo electric Light Company) and in

Tokyo Gas , founded in 1885, is the primary provider of natural gas to the main cities of Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma is a landlocked prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Gunma Prefecture has a p ...

Philanthropy

Accompanying

Shibusawa Eiichi was a Japanese industrialist widely known today as the "father of Japanese capitalism", having introduced Western capitalism to Japan after the Meiji Restoration. He introduced many economic reforms including use of double-entry accounting, ...

on a trade mission to the United States in 1909, Nezu was inspired by American industrialists' enthusiasm for civic and philanthropic activities. On his return to Japan Nezu founded and donated to a number of new educational and cultural initiatives including

Musashi Junior and Senior High School is a private boys senior high school in Nerima, Tokyo, Japan. It is an affiliate of the Musashi University. History The school was founded by industrialist Nezu Kaichirō in 1922 as Musashi High School, and used a seven-year system. After the ...

Nezu was a keen practitioner of the

Japanese tea ceremony The Japanese tea ceremony (known as or lit. 'Hot water for tea') is a Culture of Japan, Japanese cultural activity involving the ceremonial preparation and presentation of , powdered green tea, the procedure of which is called . The term "Japa ...

and his extensive private collection of pre-modern Japanese and East Asian art, served as the basis for the

Nezu Museum The , formerly known as the Nezu Institute of Fine Arts, is an art museum in the Minato, Tokyo, Minato district of Tokyo, Japan. The museum is home to the private collection of pre-modern Japanese and East Asian art assembled by Nezu Kaichirō (1 ...

Minato, Tokyo is a Special wards of Tokyo, special ward of Tokyo, Japan. It is also called Minato City in English. Minato was formed in 1947 as a merger of Akasaka, Tokyo, Akasaka, Azabu and Shiba, Tokyo, Shiba wards following Tokyo City's Local Autonomy Ac ...

. The museum buildings were rebuilt in 2006 to modern design by Japanese architect

Kengo Kuma is a Japanese architect and emeritus professor in the Department of Architecture (Graduate School of Engineering) at the University of Tokyo. Frequently compared to contemporaries Shigeru Ban and Kazuyo Sejima, Kuma is also noted for his prolif ...

, but the gardens of the museum also retain multiple traditional

Chashitsu ''Chashitsu'' (, "tea room") in Japanese tradition is an architectural space designed to be used for Japanese tea ceremony, tea ceremony (''chanoyu'') gatherings. The architectural style that developed for ''chashitsu'' is referred to as the '' ...

structures for tea ceremony gatherings. Constructed in 1933, Nezu's family home in Yamanashi has been preserved as the Nezu Memorial Museum. The main house, gate house and three story

Kura (storehouse) are traditional Japanese Warehouse, storehouses. They are commonly durable buildings built from timber, stone or clay used to safely store valuable commodities. ''Kura'' in rural communities are normally of simpler construction and used for st ...

, were listed as registered tangible cultural properties in 2007.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nezu Kaichiro Japanese businesspeople Japanese philanthropists Japanese politicians Museum founders Japanese art collectors Japanese tea masters People from Yamanashi Prefecture 1860 births 1940 deaths University and college founders