The Shimizu Port Shipping Agent Memorial House
Shimizu Minato Funayado Kinenkan Suehiro  

At the shipping agent of ”Suehiro,” one can take in the sight of the later years of Shimizu no Jirochō’s endeavors to revive Shimizu Port. It is an invaluable building that transmits to present day the state of Jirochō and Shimizu Port, which ran on the Bakumatsu years to the Meiji period.

【Jirochō and Suehiro the Meiji Era】
Before the Meiji Restoration, Jirochō was active as the leading figure of the chivalrous spirit of ”helping the weak, crushing the strong.” He featured in stories, naniwabushi ballads, novels, films etc., and was famous as a hero among popular culture.
With the Meiji Restoration as a turning point, Jirochō underwent a 180 degree change as a social worker. Through respectfully burying the victims of ”Kairinmaru,” a warship of the former shogunate the first year of the Meiji Era, he met Yamaoka Tesshū. Influenced by him, he strove to develop Shimizu Port through cultivating the skirts of Mt. Fuji and exporting tea.
In his later years, he managed the shipping agent Suehiro, which was visited by people he became close to such as Takeo Hirose and Ogasawara Naganari who fought in the Russo-Japanese War, and the artist Tomioka Tessai.
Jirochō was admired by children as ”the old man on the wharf” and his thrilling life came to a close when he was 74 years of age.
All of the staff await your visit.