Denzaburo Fujita was born into a wealthy family running a brewing and financial industry in the Choshu domain, present Yamaguchi Prefecture, one of the major powers overthrowing the Tokugawa feudal government in the second half of the 19th century. He established the Fujita-gumi in 1869, whose business was the metal mining and refining. He gradually developed the territory of business making the most of a lot of contacts mainly in politics, because there were a considerable number of high-ranking politicians from the Choshu domain, who were working for the Meiji Restoration government. The core company of the present Fujita financial conglomerate is Dowa Holdings, one of the major metal mining companies in Japan. He also contributed to the foundation of Hitachi and Nissan. In this connection, Jiufen which is a leading tourist spot in Taiwan was the gold mining town of the Fujita-gumi before the Second World War. One third of the entire area of his mansion in central Osaka is converted to a park, and the art collections of him, some of which are national treasures, are on display in the museum in the park. The first photo is the main gate of his former mansion, the second one is a two-storied pagoda relocated here before the war and the third one is a part of the central pond of his private garden.
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