E.H. Hunter founded Osaka Iron Works in 1881, when maritime transport was entering the mainstream of passenger and cargo transport. Timetables in 1884 show that Osaka Shosen Kaisha(OSK Line) operated a primary route from the Port of Osaka via Kobe, Bakan(Shimonoseki), Hakata, and Nagasaki to Hyakkanseki Port(Kumamoto), and a secondary route from Osaka via Hyakkanseki Port to Okawa, along the Chikugogawa River.⁽¹⁾

The transit time between Osaka and Kumamoto was about 60 hours. Only decades ago, feudal lords were required to travel from up and down Japan to the shogunal capital of Edo(Tokyo) in a practice called sankin kotai. Lord Hosokawa of the Higo(Kumamoto) Domain traveled from Kumamoto by land to Tsurusaki in Oita, by boat to Murotsu Port in Harima Province , and by land to Osaka, and from there proceeded to Edo. The trip took between 33 and 35 days in all, of which 20 days were required to reach Osaka.⁽²⁾ The sea route reduced travel times between Kansai and Kyushu by a phenomenal degree, though it comes nowhere near today's Shinkansen bullet train, which covers the journey in 3 hours.

Hunter was keenly tuned in to the approaching boom in the shipping industry. The Hundred Year History⁽⁴⁾ says that in 1880, a year before formally setting up business, he had already completed and delivered the wooden steamship Rokko Maru. It entered service in December that year, covering the route from the Port of Osaka via Kobe, Bakan, Hakata, Nagasaki, and Higo to Kagoshima;⁽⁵⁾ and later the secondary route operated by OSK Line.⁽⁶⁾ Chinzei Maru, constructed in 1883, went into service and covered the OSK Line primary route the following year. Kumagawa Maru, our first steel ship, also covered the golden route.

Osaka Iron Works rode the wave of the times. It grew into one of the three major shipbuilders of the late Meiji period(1868–1912)—the other two being Mitsubishi and Kawasaki—and enjoyed dramatic development after the First World War. Osaka Iron Works never resorted to support from a powerful zaibatsu conglomerate or financial institution,⁽⁷⁾ but instead demonstrated a vigorously "energeric pioneering spirit"⁽⁸⁾ in carrying on autonomously, independently, without relying on others. Needless to say, this spirit originates in the Hunter family motto Cursum perficio(Keep the course! Complete the journey!).

Bibliography

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   以下本稿で汽船の運航に関することについては本書によらせていただいています。感謝します。
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   「付属資料」本文のグラフ「明治初年における大阪肥後航路の大阪出帆記録数の推移」は「付属資料」から筆者が作成。
   　(『明治前期の大阪肥後航路と汽船便』立山一郎2018年株式会社日本郵趣出版付属資料から作成/著者が大阪日報などの新聞情報をもとにして作成した資料であり、当時の新聞の事情から欠号も多く全ては網羅できていないと述べられている。)
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8. 8『経営の伝承(創業100周年記念)』昭和60年、日立造船株式会社、2p