Unknown photographer, Viscount Eiichi Shibusawa, plate in David Starr Jordan, The Days of a Man, volume 2 (Yonkers-on-Hudson: World Book Company, 1922), Internet Archive copy from the University of California Libraries, public domain · Halftone photographic plate captioned 'Viscount Eiichi Shibusawa' in David Starr Jordan's memoir The Days of a Man, volume 2 (World Book Company, Yonkers-on-Hudson, New York, 1922), facing page 370, as scanned by the Internet Archive from a University of California Libraries copy (the scan is the leaf after page 369; the Internet Archive marks the item as not in copyright in the United States). The photographer is not named; the photograph shows an older man in a dark suit and bow tie and is the sitter's own portrait photograph as printed by the book, with the sitter named by the printed caption. The book was published in the United States in 1922, more than 95 years ago, and Shibusawa died in 1931. The file is the Internet Archive page scan (2134 x 3472 pixels, rotated upright), cropped to the plate's left-hand photograph and reduced (downscaled only, never enlarged) from 1083 x 1485 to 875 x 1200 pixels; the right-hand plate (a different sitter) is not used. · Public domain (photograph published in the United States in 1922; photographer unknown)

entrepreneur · 19th Century

Shibusawa Eiichi

1840–1931

Known For

entrepreneurialindustrialeducational

Wikidata

Not yet included in personality matching — the documented evidence doesn't yet cover enough of the personality model. Everything else on this page is fully available.

Trait Constellation

Key Achievements

After serving in the Ministry of Finance he left in 1873 to build private enterprise, becoming head of the First National Bank (forerunner of Mizuho Bank) and helping set up the stock exchange in 1878; he is known as the 'father of Japanese capitalism'.

Helped found or run roughly 500 companies, mostly in finance but also in paper, textiles, gas, railways and insurance, among them Oji Paper, Osaka Spinning and Tokyo Gas.

Backed education and charity, including the Commercial Training School that became Hitotsubashi University and Japan Women's University (where he was president), and taught that business should unite morality and economy, drawing on the Analects.

Moments That Reveal Them

In 1867 he joined the shogunal delegation to the Paris World Fair and stayed about a year and a half in Europe studying its social and economic systems, and after the Restoration he founded a joint-stock company in the Shizuoka domain.

This is consistent with a person who studied foreign institutions closely and then set out to build Japanese equivalents. Opportunity Sensing

Unlike Iwasaki Yataro of Mitsubishi, he is reported not to have tried to build a large family conglomerate and usually sold his stakes once companies could stand on their own.

This is consistent with a preference for pooling many investors' capital rather than concentrating control. Collaboration

Turning Points

In 1873, after about four years in the new government and a year as a senior Finance Ministry officer, he resigned to found and lead the First National Bank and move into private business.

This is consistent with choosing to build private institutions rather than remain in government service. Adaptability