Shinroku Konoike,
founder of the Konoike exhange bureau
(forerunner of Sanwa Bank)
The Konoike exchange bureau (opened in 1656)
The origins of Sanwa Bank go back to the early Tokugawa Period and the Konoike Money Exchange. The Konoike family, who were descended from samurai, began in sake-brewing and the shipping business in 1656 and moved into financial lending, primarily to the powerful land-owning daimyo class in the Osaka region. In 1670, the money exchange was among the Big Ten organizations chartered by the shogunate to provide financial services to the Japanese government.