from the left Shinnosuke(Tokushichi II), Jitsusaburo(brother), Kikuko(elder sister), Taki(mother), Tani(younger sister)Shinnosuke Nomura (he assumed the name Tokushichi on his father's retirement) was born the first son of an Osaka moneychanger, Tokushichi Nomura (retrospectively referred to as Tokushichi I). The year of his birth, 1878, could hardly have been more auspicious: it also saw the foundation of the Osaka and Tokyo stock exchanges. In a real sense, Shinnosuke was the child of a new age, the age of social, economic, and political modernization which began with the restoration of the Meiji monarchy in 1868. His father had been born into a society which could still be described as feudal. Between father and son, there was more than a generation gap. In their origins and careers, they represented Japan past and Japan future.
