Scars on his hands are testament to Millbrook founder Eiichi Ishii's strict upbringing. He talks to David Williams.
Eiichi Ishii, it seems, was a naughty little boy.
When he was a lad, the Millbrook founder's late mother, Fusako, had a specific punishment if he broke the rules.
She would put incense and dried grass on his hand and set them alight.
The scars are with him today.
"I'll show you this,'' Mr Ishii says, leaning forward on the sofa at his Millbrook Resort villa.
On both of his hands, in the fleshy part between his thumb and index finger, are small white marks.
"This is a sign of punishment when I did something wrong.''
An example was when he was 4 years old, he rode his trike on the main road because it was smoother than the cobbled footpath.
One day, his trike was hit and destroyed by a bus, while he jumped out of the way, escaping injury.
He got home and exclaimed to his mother he was OK.
When he told the full story - that he had defied his mother and ridden on the road - punishment was meted out.
"It's hot,'' he recalls.
"She was very strict.''
(Given his scars, was he a very naughty boy? "I cannot deny that,'' Ishii chuckles.)
But ultimately it was the support of his mother - divorced from his father when Ishii was just 1 year old - that would prove crucial to the Ishii family buying Mill Farm, near Arrowtown, and developing Millbrook.
It was Mr Ishii who decided to invest in Millbrook, near Arrowtown, and his mother supported the decision.
The other directors on the family company's board disagreed, saying it was too far removed from its core business (art supplies and later computer software, distribution and support).
Her only son wanted to invest in Millbrook and the Ishii family were 100% shareholders.
She told them: "I hope that you other directors would agree to say yes.''
They did, unwillingly.
Last year, Mr Ishii was made an honorary member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for his services to New Zealand-Japan relations, golf and tourism.
He also has his mother to thank for exposing him to the English language at a young age.
When he was 11, while Ishii's friends were holidaying at beaches and mountains during the summer holidays, she sent him to be a servant for a family at an American military base.
The American mother was a customer at his mother's art supplies business.
It started Ishii's love affair with American culture, which would see him study at Stanford University and Harvard Business School, on top of training at Tokyo's prestigious Keio University.
Mr Ishii: "She [Fusako] thought that English was going to be a very important language in the future. So she wanted to make sure that I should learn enough English language so that I can travel around the world.''
In fact, the beautiful mother of the American military family already had two servants, so she spent much of the summer teaching the youngster English.
This consisted of her telling a story and him repeating it back in his own English words.
One story went something like this: "I had five boyfriends and all of them wanted to marry me. I said no to the first four and said yes to the fifth one. The fifth one is my current husband.''
Mr Ishii says with a smile: "They were very interesting English lessons.''
During his college studies in America, his mother did not visit.
She told her son if she was to fall sick - or even die - he should see out his studies rather than come home.
Mr Ishii: "I started appreciating that very hard decision-making and toughness of my mother.''
The family business started as Izumiya, which grew to become Japan's largest art supplies company.
The company rebranded to Too Corporation, with art supplies as one arm, when it expanded into computer software for graphic, product and industrial designers.
It also distributes and services computers, products and software for the likes of Apple, Adobe and Canon.
About 70% of its sales come from the digital arm.
One of its most famous "analogue'' exports is Copic markers, sold in more than 50 countries.
Mr Ishii: "Very fortunately, we can sell as many as we are producing. We are trying to double the production.''
The company was founded in 1919 and he is the fourth generation.
The first two generations were Mr Ishii's grandmother and mother.
Mr Ishii's son Gota, now the company's president, says annual sales are about $US200 million, or $NZ290 million.
Other than Mr Ishii's obvious contribution to golf and tourism - personal assistant Teresa Chapman says: "Mr Ishii would be one of the best marketers of this country, of this district'' - he is also celebrated in the New Year Honours list for bringing Japan and New Zealand closer in business.
Mr Ishii and wife Hiroko often bring leading Japanese business figures to New Zealand.
One is staying at Millbrook during our interview - Noriko Nakamura, the head of Poppins Corporation, a nanny service with 2000 employees.
"The purpose of the NZ Open is not just only golf,'' Mr Ishii says.
"Golf is, of course, the main part. But behind that we are trying to develop economic ties between Japan and NZ - big figures discussing what business we can possibly develop.''
You can see the threads of Ishii's family tying together in Mr Ishii's traditional way of thinking and doing business.
He says his mother's support was unswerving, despite Millbrook being "very shaky'', financially.
Mr Ishii: "Every year we have to put in some kind of assistance in terms of cashflow. But my mother's theory was never give up - not only just on Millbrook but on any other thing.
"I respect my mother's strong determination - once she decided to do something, she would stay on and never give up. That helped my career as well.''
