Institute / Research Cases / QS-RC-091
Yataro Iwasaki
Mitsubishi, Tsukumo Shokai, the Mitsubishi Mail Steamship Company, military transport in the Satsuma Rebellion. Born into a family of masterless rural samurai in Tosa, the young man who was jailed and banished for protesting an injury to his father took charge of his domain's trade, and after the Restoration launched into shipping with ships borrowed from the domain. In the twenty years from his early thirties, Mitsubishi came to command Japan's seas. On 7 February 1885, in the middle of a rate war with the government-backed Kyodo Unyu, he died at fifty. What raised him to the summit of Japanese shipping in those twenty years, and what overlapped on the day his life closed? We read a life that laid the foundation of a conglomerate in a single generation against the phases of destiny and time.
At a Glance
The case
- Subject
- Yataro Iwasaki — Founder of Mitsubishi
- Period analysed
- 1835–1885
- Three pillars
- Day 辛丑 / Month 丁丑 / Year 甲午
- Void branches
- 辰巳 (Dragon–Snake)
- Destiny area
- 0.530 The area of the triangle formed by the three pillars on the sixty-cycle circle (maximum 1.30)
- Format
- PDF, 14 pages — written in Japanese
- Price
- ¥50,000 including tax
Research Brief
What the case shows
- His destiny is a structure that flows in a single line, with just one point standing outside the flow.
- After the shock of prison and banishment, his appointment by the domain arrives, as if a weight had been lifted.
- From the Tosa trading office to Mitsubishi and the transport of the Satsuma Rebellion, the growth of his enterprise is concentrated in a twenty-year window of void.
- The year he reached the summit was a year in which the force supporting his work was doubled.
- 7 February 1885 was a day on which the window of void opened, inside a ten-year phase in which both of his supports were lost.
Questions
The questions the report answers
- How did a young man from a masterless-samurai family build Mitsubishi in a single generation?
- What overlapped in the appointment that came after prison and banishment?
- Where in time were the twenty years of his rise to the summit of shipping placed?
- What overlapped on 7 February 1885?
Public Record
The record, year by year
Selected events from the public record. Analysis and judgement are given in the report itself.
| 1855 | 乙卯 | Jailed for protesting his father's injury, then banished from his village |
| 1859 | 己未 | First appointed by the Tosa domain; sent to Nagasaki |
| 1867 | 丁卯 (天) | Takes charge of the Tosa trading office in Nagasaki |
| 1870 | 庚午 (天) | Mar — leads Tsukumo Shokai into shipping |
| 1873 | 癸酉 (天) | Renames the business Mitsubishi Shokai |
| 1874 | 甲戌 (天) | Carries troops for the Taiwan expedition; moves head office to Tokyo |
| 1877 | 丁丑 (天) | Military transport in the Satsuma Rebellion brings vast profit |
| 1882 | 壬午 (天) | Jul — the government-backed Kyodo Unyu is founded |
| 1885 | 乙酉 | 7 Feb — dies in Tokyo at fifty |
Year pillars change at Risshun, in early February. (天) = void year or void decade.
Contents
14 pages
- Destiny profile and chart
- Yin and yang charts
- Axis and type of destiny
- Ten-year phases
- Composite numerical table
- The generating flow and the single break
- From prison to the domain's trade
- The twenty void years
- The voided succession and the seals
- Exchanging fortune for office
- The four layers of 7 February 1885
- Timeline chart
- Public record
- Conclusion
Purchase
Order this Research Case
¥50,000incl. tax · PDF · Japanese
Email the case number QS-RC-091. We reply with an invoice; the PDF follows once payment is confirmed.
Analysis supervised by FAITH (Makoto Tokunaga) — MSc Economics, University of Warwick · CICP · Shugakuin Saii