- Kawasaki Shōzō
Kawasaki Shōzō (川崎正蔵) (1837 – 1912) was a Japanese
industrialist , and shipbuilder. He foundedKawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. .Overview
Born in Kagoshima to a
kimono merchant, Shozo Kawasaki became a tradesman at the age of 17 in Nagasaki, the only place in Japan then open to the West. He started ashipping business inOsaka at 27, which failed when hiscargo ship sank during a storm. In 1869, he joined a company handlingsugar from theRyukyu Islands , established by a Kagoshimasamurai , and in 1893, researched Ryukyu sugar and sea routes to the Ryukyus at the request of the Ministry of Finance. In 1894, he was appointed executive vice president of Japan Mail Steam-Powered Shipping Company, and succeeded in opening a sea route to the Ryukyu and transporting sugar to mainland Japan.Having experienced many sea accidents in his life, Kawasaki deepened his trust in Western ships because they were more spacious, stable and faster than typical Japanese ships. At the same time, he became very interested in the modern shipbuilding industry. In April 1876, supported by
Matsukata Masayoshi , the Vice Minister of Finance, who was from the same province as Kawasaki, he established Kawasaki Tsukiji Shipyard on borrowed land from the government alongside the Sumidagawa River, Tsukiji Minami-Iizaka-cho (currently Tsukiji 7-chome,Chūō, Tokyo , a major step forward as a shipbuilder.Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. traces its origins to 1876, when Kawasaki Shōzō (川崎正蔵) established Kawasaki Tsukiji Shipyard in Tokyo, Japan. Eighteen years later, in 1896, it was incorporated as Kawasaki Dockyard Co., Ltd.
References
cite web| url=http://www.bookrags.com/history/worldhistory/kawasaki-ema-03/
title=Kawasaki History Summary |work=World History Study Guide | accessdate=2006-05-26
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