Sakuzaemon Fukui/Origin

Origin
Fukui Sakuzaemon 福井作左衛門 was a carpenter from the early Edo period who originally came from Yamato Province. He was the head of the Kyoto masuza 枡座, an officially sanctioned guild in charge of producing, selling, and inspecting a tool called masu, a square wooden box used to measure rice (what Sakuzaemon holds in his hand in his card).

Sakuzaemon started out as a carpenter working on the Hōryūji. In 1634, upon Tokugawa Iemitsu's visit to Kyoto, Sakuzaemon was appointed the master carpenter of Nijō Castle, as well as the overseer of the production of the masu. In 1669, the Kyoto masu became the national standard. The Fukui family thus became the hereditary heads of the Kyoto masuza all the way until the Meiji period.