The Origin of the Evil Merchant Echigoya in Tenchu, Gintama and Other

Every ninja fan who knows what a PlayStation is have surely played the shinobi series called Tenchu. There was this memorable mission called Punish the Evil Merchant. The main character, ninja Rikimaru, was given a task to kill the greedy merchant Echigoya. This mission became an iconic one and appeared in multiple Tenchu games.

Merchant from Echigo appears also in old samurai dramas such as Mito Kōmon. The evil merchant often makes greedy deals with another stereotypical character of evil magistrate. Company Echigoya also appears in anime Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody. Echigoya, the evil merchant, also made it to the famous anime Gintama. His appearance there is connected to a stealth ninja mission of Sarutobi Ayame kunoichi so it might be actually inspired by Tenchu. Gintama authors are well known for their references to other works.

Evil merchant is apparently a cliche in Japanese art. A similar mission was in a game Shinobido, inspired by Tenchu. In feudal Japan, especially during the Edo period, merchants were at the very bottom of the social system. The proud samurai looked down on them. The problem was that merchants slowly became quite powerful as the market started developing. Especially when westerners made their way to Japan and the old Tokugawa shogunate with the whole feudal society started to crumble. They were even more disliked by the samurai who started to see their own inability to keep up with the upcoming changes. Maybe this is the beginning of the evil merchant character. It was mainly their warrior pride. Some samurai saw the end of the era coming so they gave up on their traditions and even became merchants. One of the notable examples is Iwasaki Yatarō, the founder of Mitsubishi corporate.

So who was really the evil merchant Echigoya? I asked this once on WordReference forums and got some hints. Mitsui Takatoshi, who lived in the 17th century, is the original Echigoya. He came from a samurai family, but his father renounced his status and became a merchant. The family was one powerful clan in the Echigo province in Japan. It seems like they became even more successful as merchants, and Mitsui inherited the trading talent. He even made it to a big city of Edo (nowadays Tokyo) where he founded a kimono shop. Guess what he called it? Echigoya! His business still exists, today named Mitsukoshi. The name Echigoya is used nowadays by many Japanese companies and stores. Mitsui, with other big companies called zaibatsu, had a great impact on politics. Such business involvement in politics is of course considered dirty and could have even played a major role in the Japanese military actions before and during WWII. This also might be the reason why someone named Echigoya is often viewed as the classic evil merchant who influences powerful people with his wealth. Calling him Mitsui would be too direct and offensive.

Keywords: Japan, Japanese, J-drama, Taiga, Echigoya
#jdrama #tenchu #gintama #japanesehistory #japan #edo