Tokyo Downtown...
Father of Japanese Capitalism
A son of a rich farmer became a samurai to eventually grow up as the main player in the modern Japanese industry.
Eiichi Shibusawa in his early 20s tried to join the anti-shogun/pro-imperial camp, though he was not a samurai as he was a son of a farmer in a village 80 km north of Tokyo then called Edo, though Shibusawa's family was rich. (At the time even most of ordinary farmers could read and write in Japan. A very successful farmer or merchant had a chance to become a quasi-samurai.) Being influenced by the social atmosphere at the time, Shibusawa wanted to fight against the Tokugawa regime, while the Tokugawa government decided to put an end to its 200-year-long closed-door policy and open the country to the world despite opposition from some samurai clans close to the imperial court in Kyoto. Shibusawa planned to attack a castle of a samurai lord, a subject of the Tokugawa family which held power to govern Japan. But his relatives succeeded in persuading Eiichi to give up the revolutionary idea.
Nonetheless, Eiichi Shibusawa went up to Kyoto, the imperial capital of Japan 500km west of Edo which was the samurai administrative capital of Japan governed by the Tokugawa shogun (shogun is the title meaning the head of all the samurai clans). However at the time, the pro-imperial samurai camp in Kyoto was well suppressed by Tokugawa shogun forces. Shibusawa became at a loss.
But, Shibusawa had a samurai friend as he had learnt swordplay in Edo before going to Kyoto. Through this samurai friend, young Shibusawa got a chance to be employed by a samurai lord who was a relative to the Tokugawa Shogun. Eiichi Shibusawa became a samurai. And subsequently, the Shogun died of illness, paving the way for Shibusawa's lord toward shogunship. So, in 1864, samurai Shibusawa Eiichi became a subject of the new king of Japan, namely the 15th Shogun from the Tokugawa Family, Yoshinobu. So, Shibusawa, originally a son of a farmer, got a big chance to be something, though the Tokugawa samurai regime came to fall through a civil war against the anti-Tokugawa/pro-imperial samurai camp, which put an end to the samurai era of Japan. This big regime change is called Meiji Restoration (of the Imperial Authority).
Shibusawa Eiichi, 1st Viscount Shibusawa (1840 - 1931) was a Japanese industrialist widely known today as the "father of Japanese capitalism". He spearheaded the introduction of Western capitalism to Japan after the Meiji Restoration. He introduced many economic reforms including use of double entry accounting, joint stock corporations and modern note-issuing banks.[1]
He founded the first modern bank based on joint stock ownership in Japan...
Another notable aspect of Shibusawa's career is that, despite being the founder of hundreds of corporations, he refused to maintain a controlling stake in these corporations, effectively preventing himself from forming a zaibatsu....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibusawa_Eiichi
Eiichi Shibusawa was unique in that he avoided becoming a Rockefeller or a Rothschild, though the Shibusawas enjoyed a very rich life.
Shibusawa said, "I think it is evil to become a rich man, though I myself is a member of Japanese industrialists. A rich man wants to be richer. His desire to accumulate wealth is limitless. But what if a super-rich man gets all the wealth in a country? It is not good for anybody. As we were born as human beings, we have to live a more meaningful life. While being business men, we should not devote our life to just making money without end but we should pursue our ideal using our knowledge."
So, Eiichi Shibusawa was unique in that he avoided becoming a Rockefeller or a Rothschild, since he knew there was something more important than simply making money.
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Mar 4:30 And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it?
Mar 4:31 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth:
Mar 4:32 But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it.