Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
(58) Interior of house at Takayama.
While the Takayama house gives an impression of considerable provincial affluence,
to appreciate the extent of the enterprises of a merchant-house, the history of the Kōnoike
family has some interest. The founder of their merchant fortunes lived in the village of
Kōnoike, near Osaka, from 1570 to 1650, and in 1600 started the brewing of
sake
; four
years later he began to transport it to Edo for sale there, in view of the expanding demand
from the warriors who gathered round the Shogun, sending it at first by road, and then, as
demand increased, by sea. By the time of his death he had three
sake-
shops in Osaka, and
was lending money to
daimyō.
He had eight sons and two daughters, and in the division
of his property, his eighth son, Zen'emon, succeeded to the largest of the Osaka shops and
to the principal part of the family business, which was to flourish for over 200 years. The
dispatch of
sake
in barrels continued for a while to be a major part of this business, but it
fell off later partly because of restrictions on
sake
drinking by the authorities in the 1670s
andpartlybecausepracticeinEdochanged—whereas formerly
sake
hadbeensolddirectly
to
daimyō
in their Edo residences, it now went to
sake
merchants in the city, with whom
Kōnoike had fewer connections. However, the handling in the Osaka rice-market of rice
from provincial domains had for some time been part of their enterprise, although they did
