Masajiro Furuya

Masajiro Furuya (古屋政次郎, November 7, 1862—February 15, 1938; sometimes written as Masahiro Furuya ), founder of the Furuya Company, was a Japanese American banker, merchant, and manufacturer, whose career took place largely in Seattle, Washington, United States. Gary Iwamoto described him in 2005 as "perhaps the most prominent local [Seattle] businessman of the early 20th Century" and "certainly the top businessman among Japanese on the Pacific Coast" during that period.

Furuya traveled to Japan in 1903 to get married. He and his wife Hatsu Shibata returned to Seattle. They had two daughters, both of whom attended Seattle public schools. His blue-suited "Furuya men" traveled the west, taking orders for goods from Japanese laborers throughout the region. The company also engaged in real estate, postal service, banking, and printing, and sold rice to the Imperial Japanese Navy. and wages were low;

Despite his austere lifestyle and strong Christian beliefs, Ronald Takaki writes that Furuya's fortune may have had significant roots in the underground economy of Seattle's Skid Road. Takaki describes it as "the accepted opinion among the Seattle community" that beginning in his days as a tailor Furuya functioned as a trusted banker for Seattle prostitutes. "ome of them may have died or moved away… without requesting the money back. As a result, Furuya, they say, made big money out of it."

The Nippon Kan Building, built 1909–1910, depicted here in 2007. The summer house may have been Furuya's only personal extravagance. Most of the year he