Keinosuke Nishino

2020/11/27

Image: From "Ten-Year Anniversary Discussion of Japanese Railways" (1909), edited by Tatsuyasu Kinoshita

Express trains, onboard electric lighting, dining cars, sleeping cars, carry-on luggage transport, and railway-operated station hotels. These were first provided in Japan by the Sanyo Railway Company (which laid and opened the current JR Sanyo Main Line). These services laid the foundation for railway transport, and several of them became widespread and established. One of the central figures who contributed to this realization was Keinosuke Nishino, who served as the Traffic Manager at the company. Nishino was a businessman who studied at Keio University and moved through Sanyo Railway, the Imperial Theatre, Tokio Marine Insurance, Shirokiya Department Store, and Japan Air Transport as a practical manager. This article focuses on his activities at Sanyo Railway.

Keinosuke Nishino was born in August 1864 in Inada Village, Soraku District, Yamashiro Province (now Seika Town, Soraku District, Kyoto Prefecture) as the second son of Mozaburo Fujita. His family was in farming; his grandfather was enthusiastic about improving agricultural tools and selling rice, becoming the village headman (shoya). His father was said to be respected by the villagers for his strong will and abundant common sense, handling lawsuits and public affairs that arose in the village.

In contrast, Keinosuke during his elementary school days was an ordinary boy. He later reflected with lifelong regret that he and his three brothers rebelled against their gentle stepmother after losing their mother at age eight. He entered Kyoto Prefectural Kyoto Middle School as a substitute and the very last candidate; motivated by that joy, he applied himself to his studies and graduated at the top of his class.

In 1884, he entered Keio University. In the same year, he was adopted by Ryu Nishino, a relative, and inherited the Nishino family two years later. As one of the Keio students, Nishino was exceptionally talented. Nishino was among the students Fukuzawa invited every Saturday for discussions (called the Saturday Club), and on June 26, 1885, the name of Raita Ibuki (Fujiyama) can be confirmed alongside Nishino's. The two were close; Nishino was a member of the Imperial Theatre at the same time Fujiyama served as a promoter and director of Toyo Seitetsu, and the Shirokane area where Nishino lived during his Imperial Theatre days was very close to the Fujiyama residence. In April 1887, he graduated from the regular course of Keio University. He cited as an unforgettable lesson from his time there that Fukuzawa, during public speaking, taught that "human beings must have high dignity" and took the lead in using honorific language toward the students.

The Sanyo Railway Company was founded with the primary goal of laying a railway between Kobe and Shimonoseki. Its origins trace back to the 1876 proposal for a Kobe-Himeji railway by Sanjin Murano, a Hyogo prefectural official. This plan took shape in 1885 when Tadakatsu Utsumi became the Governor of Hyogo Prefecture and heard about it from Murano. The following year, Utsumi gathered influential figures from within the prefecture and added Denzaburo Fujita, Rokuro Hara (President of Yokohama Specie Bank), and Heigoro Shoda (Keio University alumni) from outside the prefecture. In December of that year, the first promoters' meeting was held, and an application for construction was submitted to Utsumi. In April 1887, Shoda and Hara invited Hikojiro Nakamigawa (Keio University alumni), president of Jiji Shinpo, as the representative of the founding committee (he became president upon the company's launch). That same month, Yukichi Fukuzawa introduced Nishino, who was about to graduate from the Juku, to Nakamigawa.

Thus, Nishino joined Sanyo Railway before its opening as one of the ten Keio University graduates hired by Nakamigawa. Initially, he was dispatched to the government railways to learn the business, apprenticing at Shimbashi and Yokohama. The hiring of Keio University alumni continued thereafter; in 1889, Sutejiro Fukuzawa joined Sanyo Railway shortly after completing his studies in the United States.

The construction of the railway strongly reflected Nakamigawa's philosophy, being developed as an extraordinarily high-standard line for the time, with vehicles and technology meeting requirements actively imported from Britain and the United States. The purpose was the necessity of forming a major trunk line for Japan, ensuring speed, and improving service, but the true intent lay in securing competitiveness against Seto Inland Sea shipping routes, including connections to Shikoku and Kyushu. In January 1888, the first license under the Private Railway Ordinance was granted, and in November of the same year, the section between Hyogo and Akashi opened. Thereafter, it continued to extend westward, but the path was not smooth sailing, as it faced the Crisis of 1890 and fierce competition with coastal shipping. To raise construction funds for unopened sections, the company had to sell recently purchased rolling stock and lay off employees, and eventually, Nakamigawa resigned from the presidency.

After finishing his apprenticeship at the government railways, Nishino built his career in the Warehouse Department and then the Traffic Department. In November 1894, he was promoted to Acting Traffic Manager and Head of the Passenger Section. During this time, the presidency of Sanyo Railway passed to Jutaro Matsumoto after a period of vacancy. Although Matsumoto had served as an auditor since the founding, he held key positions in multiple companies at the time of his appointment. Practical management was directed by Takuzo Ushiba (Keio University alumni), who became General Manager in April 1894. Ushiba was recommended by Director Hikoichi Motoyama, who had studied under Fukuzawa. It is said that when handling high-quality and highly innovative projects, Ushiba united the executives so the company would act as one.

Under General Manager Ushiba (who became Managing Director in 1898 and concurrently Chairman in 1904), Nishino realized the initiatives listed at the beginning of this text under his own direction, starting with the commencement of express train operations in October 1894. In November 1897, trial use of onboard electric lighting began. In May 1899, the company began attaching first-class coaches with dining facilities to express trains between Osaka and Mitajiri (now Hofu), and in April 1900, sleeping cars (combined with dining) were added to the same trains. The dining car menu was devised by Hikonosuke Iwasaki, Manager of the Locomotive Department, and beef steak was served from the very first day.

In November 1899, Nishino traveled to Europe and the United States to inspect the railway business. After returning to Japan, he changed the mindset from "selling tickets to people" to "having people buy them," and stated that staff should take the lead in politely interacting with passengers, adding the words "Thank you very much."

In April 1901, based on the knowledge Nishino gained from abroad, he started a direct handling service that received cargo directly from shippers and handled delivery. Until then, railway cargo, starting with the Tokaido Line, had been left to transport agents. On the first day of cargo handling, he gathered station masters and encouraged them, saying, "You must be prepared to sleep in the stable with the horses." By pairing this direct handling with the company's own railway ferry links, they succeeded in capturing freight bound for Shikoku and Kyushu that had been flowing to water transport, contributing significantly to increased revenue.

In May 1901, with the opening of the section between Asa and Bakan (renamed Shimonoseki the following year), the entire line was completed, and a directly operated ferry service was established between Bakan and Moji. To commemorate this, the "Sanyo Railway Guide" (B6 size, 262 pages) was published under Nishino's editorship. The following year, Japanese-style and Western-style inns were built within the Shimonoseki station grounds, with the Western-style one operated directly as the Sanyo Hotel.

Sanyo Railway had a reputation for its service-oriented mindset. Morio Ando, who moved from Kyoto Railway to Nippon Railway, recalled: "The private railway world in Kansai had highly developed advertising and service. Once a month in Osaka, staff from the traffic departments of Kansai Railway, Sanyo Railway, Kyoto Railway, and the government railways would gather for a meeting on advertising and service. Ultimately, this meeting was led by Sanyo Railway. Sanyo was advanced in advertising and service and did many new things, so Kyoto Railway and others often imitated them." Behind these brilliant evaluations, Nishino donated the proceeds from platform tickets to the Okayama Orphanage and installed charity boxes for those donations. This action is regarded as a precursor to the framework of customer-participation philanthropy.

In December 1906, Sanyo Railway was nationalized and came under the jurisdiction of the Railway Bureau of the Ministry of Communications. While some employees moved to the ministry and later held key positions, Nishino firmly declined this path despite being requested to do so. He had wielded his talents freely in the railway world to the point of being highly praised as "Nishino of Sanyo, or Sanyo of Nishino," but his departure was also graceful.

At a time when European-style theatres were long-awaited, Eiichi Shibusawa, Heigoro Shoda, and Sutejiro Fukuzawa worked most enthusiastically to establish the provisional founding office of the Imperial Theatre Co., Ltd. In February 1907, Nishino was appointed Managing Director upon Shoda's recommendation. The board of directors included Momosuke Fukuzawa and Takemasa Tezuka (Keio University alumni, who published Japan's first monthly railway timetable, "Train and Steamboat Travel Guide"). Kyuzaburo Yamamoto (Keio University alumni), who had served as the head of land-sea connection affairs at Sanyo Railway, took the position of manager.

Nishino's spirit toward the theatre is represented by his words: "Turning from a railwayman to a showman might seem like entering a completely unrelated business, but that is not the case at all. Railways and shows are identical in the point of attracting customers, and moreover, the aspect of new creativity in the business greatly appealed to my heart." Nishino set a policy to innovate the way plays were managed, citing the improvement of viewing methods to ensure freedom and equality as one of them.

Representative examples include the introduction of a ticket system and seats. Spectators became able to select their preferred seats from a seating chart and purchase viewing tickets up to ten days before the opening. For the seating, he abolished the traditional 'sajiki' (box seating), which did not hesitate to cram in people during busy times, and replaced them with individual seats. Nishino personally devised and adopted this specification based on what had been popular in Sanyo Railway's passenger cars. He provided hat hooks at the bottom of the seats and recesses for hanging umbrellas and canes at the back. The Imperial Theatre had its first performance in March 1911. Nishino saw the opening through and entrusted the succession of the managing directorship to Tezuka in February of the following year.

From March 1912, Nishino spent about a year and a half inspecting the United States and European countries. After returning to Japan in February 1913, he was appointed as the Manager of the Tokyo Head Office and Sales Department of Tokio Marine Insurance Co., Ltd., and later became the manager of the affiliated Meiji Fire Insurance Co., Ltd.

In November 1917, he was invited as Managing Director of Toyo Seitetsu Co., Ltd., and in July 1921, as President of Shirokiya Department Store. Both were based on the recommendation of Toyoji Wada (Keio University alumni). The presidency of Shirokiya was later followed by Shinzo Yamada, who had served as an early train boy at Sanyo Railway.

In March 1928, Japan Air Transport Co., Ltd. was established, and he was appointed President. He traveled to Europe and the United States to purchase equipment and managed to start passenger operations in July 1929. In October 1931, he retired from the position, and his career in the business world, which started with railways, concluded with aviation. The attitude Fukuzawa taught to Keio students took root in Nishino's spirit of hospitality and bore fruit in the industries he touched.

In his final years, he evacuated to Nasu Onsen and passed away in March 1945, a peaceful death at the age of 82.