《85》The Dawn of Early Modern Hakata and Hakata Merchants (Part 9)....About another wealthy merchant, Shimai Soshitsu
- Another wealthy Hakata merchant, Shimai Soshitsu (1539-1615), was active at about the same time as Kamiya Sotan, whom I have already mentioned. Like Sotan, Soshitsu also contributed greatly to the prosperity of Hakata, such as cooperating in the Taiko Machiwari planning.
- The Shimai family, while operating liquor stores and financial businesses in Hakata for generations, was also involved in the trade between Japan and Ming Dynasty Korea, which was monopolized by the Ouchi clan, as well as the trade between Japan and Korea with the Rhee clan. There is an anecdote that illustrates just how wealthy Shimai Soshitsu was.
- Shimai Soshitsu had a relationship with Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582), and owned a "Narashibakatatsuki," a tea container that was said to be one of the three most famous pieces of furniture at the time. It is said that the value of the tea container was 3,000 kan of silver at the time, when 1,000 kan of silver was enough to make a person opulently rich, and that influential feudal lords in the Kyushu area often offered to sell it to him, but he refused. How surprising that a single small tea container could be worth 3,000 kan of silver!
* The photo shows Nara's famous Japanese garden, Iisuien. There is a beautiful teahouse in that garden. /
近世博多の黎明期と博多商人（その９）…もう一人の豪商、島井宗室について
- これまで述べて来た神屋宗湛とほぼ同時代に活躍した、もう一人の博多の豪商が島井宗室（1539-1615）です。宗室も宗湛と同じく太閤町割りに協力するなど、博多の街の繁栄に大きく貢献した人物です。
- 島井家は代々博多で酒屋や金融業を営む一方、大内氏が独占する日明貿易や李氏朝鮮との日朝貿易にも携わり、巨万の富を築き上げた大富豪です。この島井宗室がどれほどの金持ちであったかを物語る逸話があります。
- 宗室は織田信長（1534-1582）と交流があり、当時三大名器の一つといわれた茶入れ「楢柴肩衝」を所有していました。その値打ちは銀千貫あれば大金持ちという時代に、当時銀3千貫ともいわれ、九州一円の有力大名らがたびたび譲渡を申し出たが売らなかったと言われています。小さな茶入れひとつで「銀3千貫」とは驚きですね。