About Our Founder Tokushichi Nomura | 5. Birth of Tokushichi Nomura

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.

Osaka Commercial School
Source: School history of Osaka City University

As the young Shinnosuke grew up, so did Japan's system of education, a centrally controlled system of primary, secondary and university institutions based on American and European models. In 1891, Shinnosuke entered the foundation course at the Osaka Commercial School. Although his studies were delayed by a serious bout of pneumonia, Shinnosuke persevered. He continued at night school, and at the age of 19 graduated with a qualification in commercial subjects.

His father must have been proud of him, for at the same time as receiving an education, Shinnosuke had been assisting his father in the family business.

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