He was the head of a branch of the Mitsui family, which served for the industrial and cultural development of Kyoto as directors of many start-up companies at the time of the rise of Japanese industry and as a member of the Kyoto Prefectural and Municipal Assemblies.
Saburobe Nakai IV was born on 12 April 1851, during the Kaei era as a member of the Ohara family.
[2] He made the family business, "Echisan Shoten", prosperous together with its founder, Saburobe Nakai III, and reorganised "Echisan Shoten" into an unlimited partnership and thereafter a limited liability company and expanded the lines of business by adding machine-made paper, first in Japan, to the original product handled, washi, and exerted himself for modernising its management.
[3] After resigning as a member of Kyoto City Assembly, from the end of the Meiji until the Taishō periods, he built signpost(s)[4] and stone monument(s)[5] as public services in the area of Kyoto Higashiyama and opened mountain trails around there.
[1] Later, the garden of his retreat house was selected as a designated and registered cultural property of Kyoto City (scenic spot).