Katsuzo Nishimura was born in 1836. His father was a samurai of the domain of Sakura in Shimosa and chief retainer of the allied domain of Sano in Shimotsuke; his elder brother Nishimura Shigeki was an exponent of Western learning and a leader in moral education.
Nishimura Katsuzo, having studied Western style gunnerjq began his career as a samurai in the service of the domain of Sano but later relinquished his samurai status and became a commoner, devoting himself to commercial and industrial activities. At the end of the Edo period, he made large profits through the illegal import of Western style guns, but his activities came to light, and he was for a time imprisoned on Ishikawa Island in Edo. He later separated himself from the commercial house of Ise Hei, with which he had previously been allied, and set himself up independently under the name Ise Katsu, selling firearms and ammunition and realizing huge profits.
In 1869 he received an order for military shoes from Omura Masujiro, who was engaged in building an army for the newly formed Meiji government, an order that he filled by importing shoes from abroad. In 1870, determined to make shoes that were better fitted for Japanese use, he set up a shoe manufacturing plant in the Tsukiji area of Tokyo and later established other leather manufacturing plants. In 1870 he set up a factory for the production of machine-knitted goods. In all these undertakings he employed the younger sons of the former samurai of his old domain, in this way helping to give employment to members of the class to which he had originally belonged.
In 1872 he opened a Western style clothing store on the Ginza in Tokyo and in 1875 began the manufacture of firebrick. In 1885 he bought up the Shinagawa glass manufacturing works, which had previously been operated by the government. The following year he went abroad, visiting factories in many different countries and taking steps to introduce the latest Western technology to Japan.
About half of his early ventures ended in failure, but he played a pioneering role in the development of many different industries and helped to lay the foundation for later growth. Emphasizing the importance of technology, he encouraged industrial education and contributed to the compilation of materials on the history of industry.
