Also known as: Shouji Jinnai (庄司甚内)

According to his sixth-generation descendant Shouji Katsutomi, Jin'emon was the son of a retainer of the Houjou clan in Odawara. His older sister was a favorite concubine of Houjou Ujimasa. His father died with Ujimasa at Odawara in 1590 when the castle fell to Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Just fifteen at the time, Jin'emon was taken under the wing of another Houjou retainer and came to Edo, where he later operated a brothel called Nishida-ya. Ashamed of his profession, he never divulged his true name. "Jin'emon" was given him by a magistrate court in 1606 when his assumed name, Jinnai, was used by a criminal of the same name to involve him in a lawsuit.

He later became the first ward leader appointed by the bakufu to oversee the Yoshiwara pleasure disctrict in Edo, and his descendants inherited the position after him.