Omi-hachiman area in Shiga Prefecture produced leading wealthy merchants, the so-called Omi-shonin, in the 16th-19th century.

This area and its vicinity had prospered in commercial activity since the 9^th century, because the district is a key junction on the main roads, connecting then capital Kyoto with the major cities in the district along the Sea of Japan, in the mountainous area and along the Pacific Ocean.  There were variety of markets to exchange those goods in the district.  Some merchants running these markets gradually became influential and they expanded the business area to Kyoto, Osaka and Edo (present-time Tokyo) from the 17^th century.  Too many existing big businesses to count were born here.  They are Mitsui, Sumitomo, Seibu, Takashimaya, Marubeni, Itochu, Toyobo, Torey, Wacoal, Takeda, and so on.  The old quarter of Omi-hachiman City, where some of these big businesses were born, remains as it was as shown in the first photo.  Hachiman-bori canal, the water transport base for the merchandise coming and going, is also left intact as shown in the second photo.  These old Japanese scenes are very helpful as the backgrounds to make period films.  The 4.7km-long canal, built in 1585, was useful not only for water transport by way of Lake Biwa but also for getting business information from the merchants from other areas.  Having been planned to reclaim because of water contamination in the 1960s though, it regains original figure answering the locals' opinion.

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