"which had an infirmity thirty and eight years" - How the Russo-Japanese War Started

Downtown Tokyo in the Rain

How the Russo-Japanese War Started

China has never fought Russians in a full-scale war.  Koreans never fought Russians in a full-scale war.  But Japanese did in 1904 and 1905.

On October 3 (of 1903), the Russian Minister to Japan, Roman Rosen, presented to the Japanese government the Russian counterproposal as the basis of negotiations, as follows:

• "1. Mutual engagement to respect the independence and territorial integrity of the Korean Empire.

• 2. Recognition by Russia of Japan's preponderating interests in Korea and of the right of Japan to give advice and assistance to Korea tending to improve the civil administration of the Empire without infringing the stipulations of Article I.

• 3. Engagement on the part of Russia not to impede the commercial and industrial undertakings of Japan in Korea, nor to oppose any measures taken for the purpose of protecting them so long as such measures do not infringe the stipulations of Article I.

• 4. Recognition of the right of Japan to send for the same purpose troops to Korea, with the knowledge of Russia, but their number not to exceed that actually required, and with the engagement on the part of Japan to recall such troops as soon as their mission is accomplished.

• 5. Mutual engagement not to use any part of the territory of Korea for strategical purposes nor to undertake on the coasts of Korea any military works capable of menacing the freedom of navigation in the Straits of Korea.

• 6. Mutual engagement to consider that part of the territory of Korea lying to the north of the 39th parallel as a neutral zone into which neither of the Contracting Parties shall introduce troops.

• 7. Recognition by Japan of Manchuria and its littoral as in all respects outside her sphere of interest.

• 8. This agreement to supplant all previous Agreements between Russia and Japan respecting Korea"

Negotiations followed and, on 13 January 1904, Japan proposed a formula by which Manchuria would be outside the Japanese sphere of influence and, reciprocally, Korea outside Russia's. By 4 February 1904, no formal reply had been received and on 6 February Kurino Shinichiro, the Japanese Minister, called on the Russian Foreign Minister, Count Lambsdorff, to take his leave. Japan severed diplomatic relations with Russia on 6 February 1904.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Japanese_War


This war became a prelude to WWI and WWII or a precedent of modern warfare.  The Russian Empire mobilized 500,000 troops for this war from its total two million troops, and the Empire of Japan used 300,000 troops from total one million troops.  The Russian Empire flung 15 battle ships and other naval ships from its total 510,000 tons of navy fleets while the Empire of Japan deployed six battleships and other ships of war from its total 260,000 tons of navy fleets.

It also led to the revolution in Russia, leading to establishment of the communist regime.  And the success of communists in Russia paved the way for the Chinese communist revolution.  But more than that, the victory of the Empire of Japan alarmed the US, leading to the Japan-US War in 1941.

From the Japanese point of view, it was not acceptable to see Russians occupy Manchuria, North China, and the Korean Peninsula.  But it is difficult to say at the time, namely at the beginning of the 20th century, which would have been better for Manchus, Chinese, and Koreans to be governed by Japanese or Russians.  Indeed, they might have wanted to be occupied by Americans rather than Japanese.

Comparison on Troops, War Costs, and Navy between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire
http://heiwa.yomitan.jp/4/3217.html


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Joh 5:5 And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.
Joh 5:6 When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?
Joh 5:7 The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.
Joh 5:8 Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.

"no man was found worthy to open and to read the book" - The Kurusus

Tokyo Shinkansen Express-Train

The Kurusus

The Pearl Harbor Attack by the Imperial Navy of Japan involved one unique Japanese family.

Saburō Kurusu (1886 - 1954) was a Japanese career diplomat. He is remembered now as an envoy who tried to negotiate peace and understanding with the United States while Japan was secretly preparing the attack on Pearl Harbor...

After peace talks between the United States and Japan bogged down in 1941, Kurusu was dispatched as the Imperial government's "special envoy". Arriving in Washington on November 15, Kurusu told newsmen "I am indeed glad to be here in your nation's capital. I extend greetings to all from the bottom of my heart."[7] Two days later, Secretary of State Cordell Hull brought Kurusu to the White House to meet with President Roosevelt...

Over the next three weeks, Kurusu and Ambassador Kichisaburō Nomura continued to confer with Hull while awaiting Japan's reply. On the afternoon of December 7 Kurusu delivered Japan's reply, breaking relations and closing with the statement that "The immutable policy of Japan is to promote world peace." At that moment, the bombing of Pearl Harbor had commenced...

Following the Allied victory in Japan, the American military tribunal elected in February, 1946, not to prosecute either Kurusu or Nomura.[13] Kurusu was a visiting professor at Tokyo University and lived at a country estate in Karuizawa with his wife Alice. Like Nomura, Kurusu maintained for the rest of his life that he had been unaware of the plans for Pearl Harbor...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabur%C5%8D_Kurusu

Ambassador Kurusu and his American wife had one son who became an officer of the Imperial Army of Japan, though he died during the war against the US.

Ryo Kurusu (1919 - 1945), the son of Ambassador Saburo Kurusu, was drafted into the Imerial Army air force in January 1941 while he was an employee of an aircraft company.  He became a fighter pilot to fight against American fighters and bombers but a tragedy occurred.

The actual death of Ryo Kurusu, son of Saburo and Alice Kurusu, was quite different than Ken Kurushima's fictional death described in this book. Yasukuni Jinja (2003, 76) states that he fought single-handedly against eight American planes and shot down one on February 16, 1945. Watanabe (1999) gives the following account of Ryo Kurusu's tragic death after returning to base (translation by Mieko Morita):

Capt. Kurusu, born in January 1919, died due to an accident at Tama Army Airfield on February 16, 1945. When an air-raid siren sounded at the airfield, all pilots including Capt. Kurusu ran to their aircraft. As he was trying to pass in front of one plane, it moved forward two to three meters, and its propeller cut his neck. His severed head flew up two meters, and his headless body moved forward four or five more steps. This accident was unavoidable even though 1st Lieutenant Umekawa, the pilot of the plane that hit Capt. Kurusu, had fourteen and a half years of flying experience. If someone had given instructions to 1st Lieutenant Umekawa on the taxiway, this unfortunate accident could have been avoided. However, no one was giving directions to the aircraft. Capt. Kurusu was running in 1st Lieutenant Umekawa’s blind spot as everybody hurriedly ran to their planes to make sorties. 1st Lieutenant Umekawa honestly reported the accident to his commander, Maj. Yoshitsugu Aramaki.  Maj. Aramaki did not say anything to 1st Lieutenant Umekawa, whose face was pale. Later, the Imperial Army leaders overlooked the accident since it was unavoidable.

Saburo Kurusu's wife died as a Japanese citizen and also Catholic.  The Kurusus had also two daughters, namely Ryo's younger sisters, who reportedly married Americans after WWII.

Finally, it is commonsense today in Japan that Ambassador Kurusu was not informed of the Pearl Harbor Attack plan beforehand.

Though the plan was officially approved by top leaders of the Imperial Government on November 5, 1941, the final decision of launching the war against the US was finally decided when the so-called Hull note was delivered by then US Secretary of State Cordell Hull on Novermber 26, 1941 as the note proposed conditions for peace the Empire of Japan could not accept.


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Rev 5:4 And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.
Rev 5:5 And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.

"But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart" - 84-Year Old Samurai Scholar

Tokyo Tramcar Trip...

84-Year Old Samurai Scholar

There was a samurai around 1700 who started to write various useful books when he became 70 years old till he died at the age of 84.

Kaibara Ekken (1630 - 1714) or Ekiken, also known as Atsunobu was a Japanese Neo-Confucianist philosopher and botanist...

Kaibara's science was confined to Botany and Materia medica and focused on the "natural law". Kaibara became as famous in Japan as people such as Charles Darwin when it came to science. He advanced the study of botany in Japan when he wrote Yamato honzō,　(Medicinal herbs of Japan) which was a seminal study of Japanese plants. The 19th century German Japanologist Philipp Franz von Siebold called him the "Aristotle of Japan."[1]

Kaibara was known for his manuals of behavior, such as changing his Confucian ethical system based on the teachings of Zhu Xi (also known as Chu Hsi) into an easy "self-help" manuals. As an educator and philosopher, it appears that Kaibara's main goal in life was to further the process of weaving Neo-Confucianism into Japanese culture.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaibara_Ekken

The samurai scholar Kaiabara Ekiken wrote about health.  In this book called Yojo-Kun (Instructions for Keeping Healthy), he pointed the following three types of enjoyment of life:

1) Enjoy practicing the way of righteous life and accumulating record of performing good conduct.

2) Enjoy healthy life without falling into illness.

3) Enjoy longevity.

In order to enjoy longevity, he recommended the following:

i) Suppress the desire to eat various delicious foods.

ii) Suppress lust

iii) Suppress the desire to sleep loosely.

iv) Suppress the desire to talk loosely.

It should be noted that Ekiken did not include enjoyment of wealth and higher status in the three types of enjoyment of life.

In addition, in the samurai era, Japanese scholars usually wrote a book in the Chinese style using only Kanji letters.  But Ekiken wrote his book in plain Japanese using also Kana letters which were easier for ordinary people, including farmers, to read and understand.

He forbade smoking and excessive eating.  Ekiken also stressed that as good and bad is a result of daily life, everyday suppression of various desires would result in easy promotion of health.

Kaibara Ekiken said, "If you eat to 80% of your satisfaction, you will later feel full, so that you should not eat  with a full belly."  He also wrote that stomach and intestines could be regulated well if you take meals in a normal way; you don't need special medicines.

Put simply the samurai scholar around 1700 meant that life is finite but desires are infinite so that if we do not control desires, desires would destroy our life.

Other interesting thing is that Ekiken claimed that a Japanese white radish was the king of vegetables.

Instructions for Keeping Healthy
http://fuku-chan.de-blog.jp/fukuyaku/2012/02/post_0cef.html

As for his study on Japanese plants, Kaiabara Ekiken applied his own unique method of classification to record 1,362 types or species of plants in Japan.  For this subject he wrote a book in 21 volumes which is called Yamato-Honzo (Japanese Plants) .

http://hikogorou.blog5.fc2.com/blog-entry-318.html



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Act 5:1 But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession,
Act 5:2 And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles' feet.
Act 5:3 But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?
Act 5:4 Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.
Act 5:5 And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things.

"Who had his dwelling among the tombs" - Kant's Mentioning Japan

Tokyo Downtown Tramcar

Kant's Mentioning Japan

It is interesting to know that  German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804) mentioned Japan of the samurai era as the samurai Japan closed the door of the nation so as not to be influenced by Western colonizing powers.

Immanuel Kant
Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch
1795
.....
THIRD DEFINITIVE ARTICLE FOR A PERPETUAL PEACE 

"The Law of World Citizenship Shall Be Limited to Conditions of Universal Hospitality" 

Here, as in the preceding articles, it is not a question of philanthropy but of right. Hospitality means the right of a stranger not to be treated as an enemy when he arrives in the land of another. One may refuse to receive him when this can be done without causing his destruction; but, so long as he peacefully occupies his place, one may not treat him with hostility. It is not the right to be a permanent visitor that one may demand. A special beneficent agreement would be needed in order to give an outsider a right to become a fellow inhabitant for a certain length of time. It is only a right of temporary sojourn, a right to associate, which all men have. They have it by virtue of their common possession of the surface of the earth, where, as a globe, they cannot infinitely disperse and hence must finally tolerate the presence of each other. Originally, no one had more right than another to a particular part of the earth. 

Uninhabitable parts of the earth--the sea and the deserts--divide this community of all men, but the ship and the camel (the desert ship) enable them to approach each other across these unruled regions and to establish communication by using the common right to the face of the earth, which belongs to human beings generally. The inhospitality of the inhabitants of coasts (for instance, of the Barbary Coast) in robbing ships in neighboring seas or enslaving stranded travelers, or the inhospitality of the inhabitants of the deserts (for instance, the Bedouin Arabs) who view contact with nomadic tribes as conferring the right to plunder them, is thus opposed to natural law, even though it extends the right of hospitality, i.e., the privilege of foreign arrivals, no further than to conditions of the possibility of seeking to communicate with the prior inhabitants. In this way distant parts of the world can come into peaceable relations with each other, and these are finally publicly established by law. Thus the human race can gradually be brought closer and closer to a constitution establishing world citizenship. 

But to this perfection compare the inhospitable actions of the civilized and especially of the commercial states of our part of the world. The injustice which they show to lands and peoples they visit (which is equivalent to conquering them) is carried by them to terrifying lengths. America, the lands inhabited by the Negro, the Spice Islands, the Cape, etc., were at the time of their discovery considered by these civilized intruders as lands without owners, for they counted the inhabitants as nothing. In East India (Hindustan), under the pretense of establishing economic undertakings, they brought in foreign soldiers and used them to oppress the natives, excited widespread wars among the various states, spread famine, rebellion, perfidy, and the whole litany of evils which afflict mankind.  

China and Japan (Nippon), who have had experience with such guests, have wisely refused them entry, the former permitting their approach to their shores but not their entry, while the latter permit this approach to only one European people, the Dutch, but treat them like prisoners, not allowing them any communication with the inhabitants. The worst of this (or, to speak with the moralist, the best) is that all these outrages profit them nothing, since all these commercial ventures stand on the verge of collapse, and the Sugar Islands, that place of the most refined and cruel slavery, produces no real revenue except indirectly, only serving a not very praiseworthy purpose of furnishing sailors for war fleets and thus for the conduct of war in Europe. This service is rendered to powers which make a great show of their piety, and, while they drink injustice like water, they regard themselves as the elect in point of orthodoxy. 

Since the narrower or wider community of the peoples of the earth has developed so far that a violation of rights in one place is felt throughout the world, the idea of a law of world citizenship is no high-flown or exaggerated notion. It is a supplement to the unwritten code of the civil and international law, indispensable for the maintenance of the public human rights and hence also of perpetual peace. One cannot flatter oneself into believing one can approach this peace except under the condition outlined here.

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/kant/kant1.htm


Kant is very Christian in that he accused colonization by Spain, Portugal, the UK, etc.  It is said that what Kan saw is misery of colonized nations, regions, and tribes but not misery of indigenous African, Asian, and American communities.

The other modern plans for a perpetual peace descend from Immanuel Kant's 1795 essay, "Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch" (Zum ewigen Frieden. Ein philosophischer Entwurf.). In this essay the German philosopher Immanuel Kant described his proposed peace program. Perpetual peace is arguably seen as the starting point of contemporary liberal thought. Perpetual Peace is structured in two parts. The "Preliminary Articles" described the steps that should be taken immediately, or with all deliberate speed: 

"No secret treaty of peace shall be held valid in which there is tacitly reserved matter for a future war" 

"No independent states, large or small, shall come under the dominion of another state by inheritance, exchange, purchase, or donation" 

"Standing armies shall in time be totally abolished" 

"National debts shall not be contracted with a view to the external friction of states" 

"No state shall by force interfere with the constitution or government of another state" 

"No state shall, during war, permit such acts of hostility which would make mutual confidence in the subsequent peace impossible: such are the employment of assassins (percussores), poisoners (venefici), breach of capitulation, and incitement to treason (perduellio) in the opposing state"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_peace

It is also interesting to know that it was not the Vatican but a philosopher of a country from which Hitler was to emerge a century after the death of the philosopher who specified how to achieve reasonable and solid peace in the world.


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Mar 5:2 And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,
Mar 5:3 Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains:
Mar 5:4 Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him.
Mar 5:5 And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.
Mar 5:6 But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him,
Mar 5:7 And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.
Mar 5:8 For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.

" seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain" - Iwasaki of Mitsubishi

Part of Tokyo

 Iwasaki of Mitsubishi

Mitsubishi is still a big name in the Japanese industrial sector.

There are the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Mitsubishi Motors, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation, Mitsubishi Corporation, etc.

But who is the founder of the Mitsubishi industrial conglomerate?

Iwasaki Yataro (1835 – 1885) was a Japanese financier and shipping industrialist, and the founder of Mitsubishi... 

Iwasaki was born in a provincial farming family in Aki, Tosa province (now Kōchi Prefecture), the great-grandson of a man who had sold his family's samurai status in obligation of debts. Iwasaki began his career as an employee of the Tosa clan... 

He was promoted to the top position at the Tosa clan's trading office in Nagasaki, responsible for trading camphor oil and paper to buy ships, weapons, and ammunition. 

Following the Meiji Restoration in 1868, which forced the disbandment of the shogunate's business interests, Iwasaki travelled to Osaka and leased the trading rights for the Tosa clan's Tsukumo Trading Company. The company changed its name to Mitsubishi in 1873.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iwasaki_Yatar%C5%8D 

The key to Iwasaki's success is his association with Sakamoto Ryoma in Nagasak, a major port city in west Japan.  Sakamoto is still the most popular samurai even today.  He contributed to realization of the Meiji Restoration (of the Imperial Authority) in 1868 when the last samurai regime of Japan collapsed, paving the way for Japan toward modernization and Westernization.  Sakamoto is also known for his initiative to launch marine transportation business through his tie with a Scottish merchant who sold firearms to samurai lords.  Iwasaki learnt modern business when he worked for Sakamoto in Nagasaki.  However Sakamoto Ryoma was assassinated in Kyoto before the Meiji Restoration, though Iwasaki survived this dangerous days when a civil war was going on between the Tokugawa shogun government and the anti-Tokugawa/pro-imperial samurai clans.

In those days, most of samurai lords issued paper money which could be only circulated in their territories.  Though the Tokugawa clan governed all the samurai clans in Japan, economy of each clan's territory was exclusively and independently managed by each local samurai government.  So, in the turmoil days those samurai lords issued paper money in a large quantity, though the money system of Japan was based on gold and silver in addition to copper coins.  Accordingly, when a new central government was established after the civil war that demolished the feudalistic samurai regime governed by the Tokugawa shogun, central control of the money system became a great agenda as 200 local samurai clans were being disbanded.  

The Meiji imperial government decided to disband the samurai clan system to reorganize their territories into modern local municipalities called prefectures whose heads, namely governors, would be appointed by the central government in Tokyo.  In this process, the leaders in Tokyo had to put an end to circulation of money paper issued by local samurai lords.  So, they decided to buy up all the bills issued by local samurai lords at current market prices.  For this purpose, the central government issued its own paper money based on gold it has.

Iwasaki got this information beforehand from one of key politicians in the central government who was from the local territory Tosa as Iwasaki was also from the Tosa clan.  Iwasaki purchased local old paper money as much as possible at discounted prices, since their issuers, namely local samurai clans, lost their power and status as the central government was abolishing local samurai governments.   This transactions gave great fortunes to Yataro Iwasaki, the founder of the great Mitsubishi group.    

Put simply, the big insider information made Yataro Iwasaki the future founder of Mitsubishi.  So, Mitsubishi is rooted in the turmoil days of the Meiji Restoration (of the Imperial Authority) and the fall of the last samurai regime of Japan in 1860s (when Sakamoto Ryuma with progressive spirit became a samurai hero).

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Mat 5:1 And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:
Mat 5:2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,
Mat 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Mat 5:4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Mat 5:5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Mat 5:6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Mat 5:7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Mat 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Mat 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
Mat 5:10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Mat 5:11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

"Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God" - Father of Japanese Capitalism

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.

http://www.shibusawa.or.jp/eiichi/eiichi.html


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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.