OKURA KIHACHIRO

born Oct. 23, 1837, Shibata, Japan died April 5, 1928, Tokyo 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, Okura 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 Okura Company, which became one of the first businesses to engage in foreign trade. Under Okura's leadership the company later branched out into mining and industrial enterprises. In his later years Okura, who had extended his enterprises to the mainland, became a philanthropist and a promoter of Sino-Japanese friendship.