is the inherited name given to the first son born to , or the leading branch of the extended

Mitsui family The is one of the most powerful families of merchants and industrialists in Japan. The Mitsui, Mitsui enterprise (present-day Mitsui Group) was established in 1673 when Mitsui Takatoshi (1622–1694), the son of merchant parents, established Ec ...

. It was who started the naming ritual that a male heir would be called Hachirōemon when they decide the next leader of family business that Mitsui was known for. For those sons of Takatoshi, each bloodline had a nickname: the first son Takahira held the Kita branch, the second son Takatomi the , and the third son Takaharu the . When the first son of Kita branch be too young to inherit the position from his father, one of his uncles or male cousins would be selected to fill in for a limited period of time, but they did not count him as a Hachirōemon. The extended family decided to expel who had consumed family fortune by indulging in antiquity as hobby, thus Takayoshi's younger brother Takahisa was acted as Hachirōemon until Takakiyo, his nephew, was old enough. Mitsui people who inherited the name Hachirōemon the financer:
— :* Kita branch: Takatoshi's first son (1) — (3) — (4) — (5) — (6) — (7) — (8) — (9) — (10) — (11) , the last Hachirōemon the financer — (11) , an architect. :* Isarago branch: Takatoshi's second son (2) . :* Shimmachi branch: Takatoshi's third son — (3´) — (4´) .

1st - Takahira

was the first of the Mitsui head family, or the Kita branch. As the eldest son of

Mitsui Takatoshi was the founder of the Mitsui family of merchants and industrialists that later emerged as the Mitsui Group, a powerful Japanese ''zaibatsu'' (business conglomerate). Life Mitsui was born in 1622, in Matsusaka, Ise Province (present-day M ...

and the original Kita branch, Takahira's younger brothers and their family would support Kita branch by having their sons adopted to. Mitsui family business was sustained as cousins and uncles worked as an interim head of the company, and both Takakata and Takahisa were not called Mitsui Hachirōemon.

2nd - Takatomi

, the second son of Takatoshi, was the second head of the Mitsui family. His descendants headed the Isarago branch.

3rd - Takafusa

was the third head of the Mitsui family. He was the son of Takahira.

Takakata

was the son of Takaharu, the third son of Takatoshi and the first head of the Shinmachi branch. Although not counted as such, when Takafusa retired as the third head in 1734, his successor Takayoshi was still young, so Takakata acted as Hachirōemon.

4th - Takayoshi

was the fourth head of the Mitsui family. His childhood name was . In 1733, he was appointed , and inherited the Kita branch while his father's Takafusa became a Buddhist monk the following year. Renamed himself in 1736, succeeded into the Kyoto

money order A money order is a directive to pay a pre-specified amount of money from prepaid funds, making it a more trusted method of payment than a cheque. History Systems similar to modern money orders can be traced back centuries. Paper documents known ...

business under the title of in 1738, and in 1741, following the death of his uncle Takakata, Takayoshi succeeded as Hachirōemon. However, as Takayoshi incurred a large amount of debt from by spending too much on personal art collection as well as making huge donations to Temple, his title of Hachirōemon was passed to Takafusa in 1747 through the intentions of his younger brother Takahisa, who was the head of the Shinmachi representing the interest of the extended Mitsuis at the time. In 1750, Takayoshi handed over the Kita branch to his second son Takakiyo, but the squandering was not settled, so in August 1756, Mitsuis negotiated with Takayoshi and made an agreement that they paid him 1200 ''kan'' retirement pension, and Takayoshi agreed to withdraw from Mitui's financial business. Nonetheless, however, it was discovered that Takayoshi secretly borrowed money from Ōmotokata, and in the same year on 13 November, his successor, Takakiyo (then Shinpachi), decided to disown him officially: an application form was filed to the city financial officials on the 27th of the same month, in which Takakiyo signed the consent of 87 businessmen and employees that his uncle Takahisa would act as Hachirōemon.

Takahisa

, the son of Takafusa, succeeded as the third head of the Shinmachi branch as the adopted son of Takakata. Although not counted as such, when his older brother, the fourth head, had his title as Hachirōemon revoked in 1747, Takahisa acted as Hachirōemon.

5th - Takakiyo

was the fifth head of the Mitsui family. He was the second son of Takayoshi.

6th - Takasuke

was the sixth head of the Mitsui family. He was the eldest son of Takakiyo.

7th - Takanari

was the seventh head of the Mitsui family. He was the eldest son of Takasuke.

8th - Takayoshi

was a Japanese businessman during the

Bakumatsu were the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate Meiji Restoration, ended. Between 1853 and 1867, under foreign diplomatic and military pressure, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as and changed from a Feudali ...

and the early

Meiji period The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...

. He was the eighth head of the Mitsui family. During the

reformation, Takayoshi was able to move between the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

and the Imperial court, and helped establish the foundation of the

Mitsui is a Japanese corporate group and '' keiretsu'' that traces its roots to the ''zaibatsu'' groups that were dissolved after World War II. Unlike the ''zaibatsu'' of the pre-war period, there is no controlling company with regulatory power. Ins ...

zaibatsu is a Japanese language, Japanese term referring to industrial and financial vertical integration, vertically integrated business conglomerate (company), conglomerates in the Empire of Japan, whose influence and size allowed control over signifi ...

''. In 1859, he served as a money purveyor for the places of the ''

Gaikoku bugyō were the commissioners or "magistrates of foreign affairs" appointed at the end of the Edo era by the Tokugawa shogunate to oversee trade and diplomatic relations with foreign countries. In essence this was the beginning of the creation of a Mini ...

'', and after the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

, he worked on several aspects of the banking administration of the government. He established the First National Bank and the

Mitsui Bank was a major Japanese bank from 1876 to 1990. The home bank of the Mitsui conglomerate, it was one of the largest Japanese banks for much of the 20th century, together with Dai-Ichi Bank, Mitsubishi Bank, Sumitomo Bank, and Yasuda / Fuji Bank. I ...

. He was also responsible for the foundation of Mitsui & Co.

9th - Takaaki

was the ninth head of the Mitsui family.

10th - Takamine

was the tenth head of the Mitsui family. Known as a hobbyist, he built a mansion in Tokyo, the , in 1906. In the area of approximately 13,500 ''

tsubo A ''pyeong'' (abbreviationpy) is a Korean unit of area (mathematics), area and floorspace, equal to a square ''kan (unit), kan'' or 36square Korean feet. The ''ping'' and ''tsubo'' are its equivalent Taiwanese units, Taiwanese and Japanese units ...

'' (44,631 m²), the

Noh is a major form of classical Japanese dance-drama that has been performed since the 14th century. It is Japan's oldest major theater art that is still regularly performed today. Noh is often based on tales from traditional literature featuri ...

stage, the garden, and the

tennis court A tennis court is the venue where the sport of tennis is played. It is a firm rectangular surface with a low net stretched across the centre. The same surface can be used to play both Types of tennis match, doubles and singles matches. A variet ...

among others were established, and ''

Jo-an is a seventeenth-century Japanese teahouse ('' chashitsu'') located in Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture. ''Jo-an'' is said to be one of the three finest teahouses in Japan and has been in its current location in Inuyama since 1972. It was designated ...

'', which would later be a

National Treasure A national treasure is a structure, artifact, object or cultural work that is officially or popularly recognized as having particular value to the nation, or representing the ideals of the nation. The term has also been applied to individuals or ...

, was relocated there. In 1908 Mitsui Takamine allied with a visiting U.S. business delegation to assist in resolving The Panic of 1907 and the unstable Stock Market in the United States. In 1922, Takamine invited the

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales (, ; ) is a title traditionally given to the male heir apparent to the History of the English monarchy, English, and later, the British throne. The title originated with the Welsh rulers of Kingdom of Gwynedd, Gwynedd who, from ...

, the future

Edward VIII Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; 23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972), later known as the Duke of Windsor, was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire, and Emperor of India, from 20 January ...

, at the request of the

Imperial Household Agency The (IHA) is an agency of the government of Japan in charge of state matters concerning the Imperial House of Japan, Imperial Family, and the keeping of the Privy Seal of Japan, Privy Seal and State Seal of Japan. From around the 8th century ...

, and hosted a reception of the crown prince with a dinner party, a Noh viewing, etc. In 1933, as Takamine retired, he handed down the mansion at Imaichō to the eleventh head, Takakimi, but the mansion was destroyed by fire in the

bombing of Tokyo The was a series of air raids on Japan by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), primarily launched during the closing campaigns of the Pacific War, Pacific Theatre of World War II in 1944–1945, prior to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima ...

in 1945.

Takakimi

Baron was the eleventh head of the Mitsui family. After losing control of Mitsui companies after the dissolution of the ''zaibatsu'' following World War II, he ran Wakabakai Kindergarten, a

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...

that was created by his father Takamine during his lifetime. Also, Takakimi's residence, the (built in 1952), was relocated from

Nishi-Azabu is a district of Minato, Tokyo, Japan, which was a part of the former Azabu Ward. Nishiazabu is bordered by Aoyama, Tokyo, Minami-Aoyama on the north and west, Hiroo, Shibuya, Hiroo (Shibuya) on the south, Moto-Azabu on the southeast, and Roppon ...

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 ...

to the

Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum The is an open-air museum located within Koganei Park, Tokyo, Japan. It opened in 1993 as a branch of the Edo-Tokyo Museum and is operated by the Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture, a public interest incorporated foundation. T ...

Koganei, Tokyo is a Cities of Japan, city located in the Western Tokyo, western portion of the Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 123,698 in 61,832 households. The total area of the city is so the population density is about 11, ...

in 1996, and is now open to the public. His wife was the daughter of Matsudaira Yasukata, the 18th head of the Echizen-Matsudaira clan who ruled the

Fukui Domain The , also known as the , was a domain (''han'') of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1601 to 1871. Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003). The ...

. He was a car enthusiast; before World War II, he owned more than 10 luxury cars made by European companies such as

Bentley Bentley Motors Limited is a British designer, manufacturer and marketer of Luxury vehicle, luxury cars and Sport utility vehicle, SUVs. Headquartered in Crewe, England, the company was founded by W. O. Bentley (1888–1971) in 1919 in Crickle ...

Hispano-Suiza Hispano-Suiza () is a Spanish automotive company. It was founded in 1904 by Marc Birkigt and as an automobile manufacturer and eventually had several factories in Spain and France that produced luxury cars, aircraft engines, trucks and weapons. ...

Bugatti Automobiles Ettore Bugatti was a German then French automotive industry, manufacturer of high performance vehicle, high-performance automobiles. The company was founded in 1909 in the then-German Empire, German city of Molsheim, Alsace, by the ...

and

Lancia Lancia Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian car manufacturer and a subsidiary of Stellantis Europe, which is the European subsidiary of Stellantis. The present legal entity of Lancia was formed in January 2007 when its corporate parent reorganise ...

. Even into the 1990s, he drove his own Bentley T models.

Hisanori

is the twelfth and current head of the Mitsui family. He works as an architect.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitsui, Hachiroemon Japanese businesspeople Japanese art collectors Kazoku Mitsui family