The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-07-10
AN ORIENTAL sPECULAToR.

MT. Amenomiya is a Distinctly Inter- esting Parsonage.
 The Orient is hardly the place where one would seek the typical speculator and creator of fabulous fortunes. This genus is generally to be found in the great financial centers of the west Paris, London, New York. But there is now living in Japan speculator of the distinctive modern type-a dreamer, a man with tremendous genius for money-making, with a dash of the gambling spirit thrown in. He is Keiji- TO Amenomiya, and he has already made several fortunes and lost them almost as rapidly and brilliantly, and he is now engaged in building a monu- ment for himself by establishing an in- dustrial community which will be the fruit of his latest efforts in money making. He is considered in Tokyo as the dashing leader of stock jobbers and spectators and is regarded as an orig inal and brilliant, financier, though, of course, somewhat iunsound in many of his most daring speculative conceptions. MT. Amenomiya's history reads like a romance with the stock market as the scene. He is a striking personality, and whether immensely rich or pro- foundly poor, commands the attention and admiration of every one. The fol- lowing sketch of him is taken from the Sun" of Tokyo:s "The Tsukijikwan is the headquarters of this autocrat, where he receives his multifarious visi- tors. He invariably talks in a high tone and with eloquence, now and then emphasizing his points with extraordi- nary gestures, His keen, piercing eyes, resoiutely fixed upon the other party, speak of indomitable will-power. His snug, portly figure is in keeping with his intrepid character. Every morning he rises at four and first of all takes cold ablution. He then reads the pa- pers, and afterwards takes breakfact, after which he receives his numerous callers. Soon after we find him at his office in Tsukiji, intent on managing his business affairs. A king fthe mone- tary world as he is at present. MT. Amenoniya once suffered from penuyr. He is a native of Koshu, and when four teen years of age he made his debut in money making by selling eggs, whereby he earned 1.6 sen, an experience which he always delights in telling. In his younger days he tried his hand at va rious kinds of business, having once set up as f1sh-monger, and at other times as sake merchant, secondhand clothes dealer, real estate agent and what not. Subsequently he was penni- less in Yokohama. where at one time he gained by speculation thousands of yen, but soon met with reverses whereby he again became needy. Next he set up boarding house, but his busy, enterpris- ing brain again brought him better for tune. this time having made a large profit out of the kerosene business. At another time he, in conjunction with an Italian merchant, bought three hundred thousand sheets of tanegami (the paper on which eggs of silk worms are depos- ited) and they went all the way to Italy to dispose of them, only to find themselves utterly frustrated in their enterprise. On account of this failure Mir. Amenomiya returned to this coun- try. completely penniless once more; but soon after he again made g. large fortune out of the kerosene business
 He once said: I am not the kind of speculator who makes money as the