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| Closed from |
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JAPANESE
A short history of the Watanabes
| @ Giemon, the founder of the Watanabes, was a samurai who served under a daimyo near here. When the daimyo to move to somewhere near Kobe by the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1665. Giemon decided not to go there. He transferred the headship of the house to his son, and came to live here. He became a farmer. Later he and his adopted son shipping agency and sake brewery. They were very successful. They and their descendants bought rice fields and woodlands gradually, They also cleared wild land. Some of daimyoes asked them to lend money. One of those daimyoes was so thankful that he allowed the Watanabes to wear a katana(Japanese sword). At their best days there were 75 servants. The Watanabes ran 1,000hectars of woodlands, rented 700hectars of rice fields to tenants and got 10,000strawrice bags as rent. The end of the Second World war was also the end of the Watanabes. |
| By Hisao Imai |
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