Iwasaki Yatarō

Iwasaki Yatarō (岩崎 彌太郎, January 9, 1835 – February 7, 1885) was a Japanese industrialist and financier. He founded Mitsubishi Group, one of Japan's largest conglomerates.

Yatarō Iwasaki was born on 9 January 1835 in Aki, Tosa Province (now Kōchi Prefecture) into a provincial farming family.

Iwasaki's family were originally members of the samurai warrior nobility. However, during the Great Tenmei famine, his great-great-grandfather Iwasaki Yajiemon (岩崎弥次右衛門) sold off his family's samurai status to pay debts.

Iwakasi's family derived from the Iwasaki clan, which was a branch of the Takeda clan of Kai Province (甲斐武田氏). The Iwasaki clan's ancestor was Iwasaki Nobutaka (岩崎信隆), known as Takeda Shichirō (武田七郎), who was the fifth son of Takeda Nobumitsu. The Iwasaki clan served the Aki clan (安芸氏) and Chōsokabe clan (長宗我部氏) at the Battle of Sekigahara on October 21, 1600.

At age 19, Iwasaki left for Edo (now called Tokyo) to get more education. However, his studies were interrupted a year later when his father was seriously injured in a dispute with the village headman. Iwasaki accused the local magistrate of corruption for refusing to hear his case. He was kicked out of his village and sent to prison for seven months. After he was released from prison, Iwasaki had trouble finding a permanent job, but eventually found work as a tutor.

After prison, Iwasaki went back to Edo. He continued his education, studying under Yoshida Toyo, a reformist and modernization advocate from Tosa Province. He socialised with political activists in Edo.

Through Yoshida, Iwasaki got a job as a clerk for the government of Yamauchi Toyoshige. He was the daimyō (lord) of the Tosa Domain, and his clan had business interests in many parts of Japan. Yamauchi influenced Iwasaki with ideas of opening and developing the then-closed Japan through industry and foreign trade. Eventually Iwasaki bought back his family's samurai status.

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

In March 1870, Iwasaki became president of the Tsukumo Trading Company, a shipping company founded on behalf of the Yamauchi clan, and leased the trading rights. In 1873, the company changed its name to Mitsubishi, a compound of mitsu ("three") and hishi (literally, "water chestnut", often used in Japanese to denote a rhombus or diamond). Mitsubishi's emblem was a combination of the Iwasaki family crest, showing three overlapping lozenges, and the crest with three oak leaves, arranged in a threefold rotational symmetry, of the Yamauchi family, which controlled the part of Shikoku where Yatarō was born.

From 1874 to 1875, Iwasaki was contracted by the Japanese government to transport Japanese soldiers and war materials. The government purchased a number of ships for the Japanese Expedition of 1874 to Taiwan against the Paiwan Aborigines in southeast Taiwan, and these ships were later given to Mitsubishi after the expedition was finished in 1875.

This created strong links between Mitsubishi and the Japanese government. This ensured the new company's success. In return, Mitsubishi supported the new Japanese government and transported soldiers who defeated the Satsuma Rebellion in 1877. Thus, the success of Mitsubishi became intertwined with the rise of the modern Japanese state and economy. It became one of the "Big Four" zaibatsu companies.

In 1885, a merger of Mitsubishi shipping activities with competitor Kyodo Unyu Kaisha (founded in 1882) led to the adoption of the company's name Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha, or 'NYK' in short. It still exists and is one of the world's largest global shipping groups.

Iwasaki died of stomach cancer on 7 February 1885, aged 50. He was succeeded as the head of the family business first by his brother, Iwasaki Yanosuke, and later his son, Hisaya. In 1903, Iwasaki's fourth daughter, Masako, married Baron Shidehara Kijūrō, the first Prime Minister of Japan.