Kawamura Zuiken

Kawamura Zuiken was an Edo period timber merchant born in Ise who rose to samurai status.

Originally Kawamura Zuiken was a forman of coolies. Eventually, he made a fortune in the lumber business when Edo was reconstructed following the disastrous fire of the Meireki era in 1657. He also built irrigation canals in the Edo region and regulated the flow of the Yodo-gawa river near Osaka.

It is recorded that Zuiken once invited to diner all his contemporaries who had succeeded in their undertakings, and gave them such a marvelous feast that made everyone curious what had induced him to be so lavish. He answered that money kept in a Government treasury was just a dead thing, but their success enabled them to disinter it and put it into circulation and he had invited them all to diner to congratulate them on their success and the benefit they conferred on the state itself at the same time.

In recognition of his work, the shogunate granted him the title of hatamoto, a samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate, even though he was of common birth.