KIBUN DAIZIN
“As the two boys were steadily gazing, up came the shark”
PUBLISHERS’ NOTE
The Century Co. counts itself fortunatein being able to present to young readers anadmirable story from the Japanese, written byone of Japan’s most popular novelists andfilled with the spirit of that great Orientalnation. The author of this story, Gensai Murai,was once a student of the Waseda School,founded by Count Okuma, leader of the ProgressiveParty in Japan. There he studiedEnglish Literature as well as Japanese, andafter completing his course of study he wasemployed by one of the well-known Tokiodaily papers, called the “Hochi,” to write storiesfor it. His writings soon arrested the attentionof the reading circles in Japan. Several of hisnovels went through as many as ten editionswithin two years.
This story of Kibun Daizin is founded uponthe life of Bunzayemon Kinokuniya, a Japanesemerchant of the eighteenth century, whoseviiipluck, wisdom, and enterprising spirit made himone of the most prosperous and respected menof his time. He is much admired by his countrymen,and is talked of familiarly, even to thisday, by the Japanese, under the nickname of“Kibun Daizin.” “Ki” and “Bun” stand forthe initials of his personal and family names,while “Daizin” means “the wealthiest man.”
The shrewdness and dauntless ambition ofthe young hero of this story will commend himto the admiration of American boys, and inKibun Daizin, as here pictured, they will finda true representative of the wonderful nationwhich, within thirty years, has entirely changedthe modes of life that it had followed for morethan twenty centuries, and has suddenly falleninto line with the mo