was a Japanese merchant and engineer in the Edo period. Gohei was born to a family of money-changers in Kaga province. Coastal shipping Gohei was put in charge of developing a coastal shipping fleet (kitamae ships) for the Tokugawa shogunate; and he became very rich from trading, especially rice and lumber. Land reclamation project In the summer of 1851, Gohei attempted a land reclamation project in Kahoku Lake, which is south of Kanazawa on the Sea of Japan. He planned to create rice paddies; but the project failed. In mid-1852, a large number of dead fish floated to the surface of the inlet near the worksite; and some local people died after eating the dead fish. Gohei and his family were deemed responsible; and they were imprisoned. It is likely that these criminal charges were contrived as a subterfuge which enabled the clan to seize his considerable wealth. The eighty-year-old Gohei died within three months of his incarceration. Notes References Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ; OCLC 48943301 Sansom, George Bailey. (1963). A History of Japan, 1615-1867.] Stanford: Stanford University Press. ; Further reading Wakabayashi, Kisaburo. (1957). Osaka: Sōgensha. OCLC 033644769 External links Zeniya Gohei Memorial Museum Gohei and Kitamae ships IMDb, Zeniya Gohei (1913) Zeniya Gohei (1913) 1773 births 1852 deaths Japanese businesspeople