Ōkura Kihachirō

Ōkura Kihachirō (born Oct. 23, 1837, Shibata, Japan—died April 5, 1928, Tokyo) was the founder of one of the largest zaibatsu, or gigantic industrial-financial combines that dominated the Japanese economy throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Abandoning his traditional family business, Ōkura became a weapons dealer in the turbulent period preceding the Meiji Restoration, the 1868 coup d’etat that overthrew the feudal Tokugawa regime in Japan. He then formed the Ōkura Company, which...