Japanese currency

Japanese currency has a history covering the period from the 8th century CE to the present. After the traditional usage of rice as a currency medium, Japan adopted currency systems and designs from China before developing a separate system of its own.

History

Commodity money

Before the 7th-8th centuries CE, Japan used commodity money for trading. This generally consisted of material that was compact and easily transportable and had a widely recognized value. Commodity money was a great improvement over simple barter, in which commodities were simply exchanged against others. Ideally, commodity money had to be widely accepted, easily portable and storable, and easily combined and divided in order to correspond to different values. The main items of commodity money in Japan were arrowheads, rice grains and gold powder.
This contrasted somewhat with countries like China, where one of the most important items of commodity money came from the southern seas: shells. Since then however, the shell has become a symbol for money in many Chinese and Japanese ideograms.

Early coinage

The earliest coins to reach Japan were Chinese Ban Liang and Wu Zhu coins, as well as the coins produced by Wang Mang during the first centuries of the first millennium CE; these coins have been excavated all over Japan, but as Japan's economy was not sufficiently developed at the time, these coins were more likely to be used as precious objects rather than a means of exchange; rice and cloth served as the main currencies of Japan at the time.
The first coins produced in Japan are called the Mumonginsen and the copper alloy Fuhonsen which were all introduced in the late seventh century. These currencies were based on the Chinese system and were therefore based on the Chinese units of measurement. In modern times the usage of Fuhonsen has often been interpreted as charms rather than currency, but it has recently been discovered that these copper coins were in fact the first government-made coinage of Japan.

Kōchōsen currency system (8th–10th centuries)

Embassy to the Tang court (630 CE)

Japan's first formal currency system was the Kōchōsen. It was exemplified by the adoption of Japan's first official coin type, the Wadōkaichin. It was first minted in 708 CE on the orders of Empress Genmei, Japan's 43rd Imperial ruler. "Wadō Kaichin" is the reading of the four characters printed on the coin, and is thought to be composed of the era name Wadō, which could alternatively mean "happiness", and "Kaichin", thought to be related to "currency".
This coinage was inspired by the Tang coinage named Kaigen Tsūhō, first minted in Chang'an in 621 CE. The Wadokaichin had the same specifications as the Chinese coin, with a diameter of 2.4 cm and a weight of 3.75g.
Japan's contacts with the Chinese mainland became intense during the Tang period, with many exchanges and cultural imports occurring. The first Japanese embassy to China is recorded to have been sent in 630. The importance of metallic currency appeared to Japanese nobles, probably leading to some coin minting at the end of the 7th century, such as the Fuhonsen coinage, discovered in 1998 through archaeological research in Nara Prefecture. An entry of the Nihon Shoki dated April 15, 683 mentions: "From now on, copper coins should be used, but silver coins should not be used", which is thought to order the adoption of the Fuhonsen copper coins. The first official coinage was struck in 708.

Currency reform (760)

The Wadōkaichin soon became debased, as the government rapidly issued coins with progressively lesser metallic content, and local imitations thrived. In 760, a reform was put in place, in which a new copper coin called was worth 10 times the value of the former Wadōkaichin, with also a new silver coin named Taihei Genpō with a value of 10 copper coins, as well as a new gold coin named Kaiki Shoho with a value of 10 silver coins.
Silver minting was soon abandoned however, but copper minting took place throughout the Nara period. Twelve coin types are known, including one coin in gold.

Last issues (958)

The Kōchōsen Japanese system of coinage became strongly debased, with its metallic content and value decreasing. By the middle of the 9th century, the value of a coin in rice had fallen to 1/150th of its value of the early 8th century.
By the end of the 10th century, compounded with weaknesses in the political system, this led to the abandonment of the national currency, with the return to rice as a currency medium. The last official Japanese coin issue was in 958, with very low quality coins called , which soon fell into disuse.
The last Kōchōsen coins produced after the Wadōkaichin include:

Inscription	Kyūjitai	Shinjitai	Year of introduction	Image
Wadō Kaichin	和同開珎	和同開珎	708
	萬年通寳	万年通宝	760
	神功開寳	神功開宝	765
	隆平永寳	隆平永宝	796
	富壽神寳	富寿神宝	818
	承和昌寳	承和昌宝	835
	長年大寳	長年大宝	848
	饒益神寳	饒益神宝	859
	貞觀永寳	貞観永宝	870
	寛平大寳	寛平大宝	890
	延喜通寳	延喜通宝	907
	乹元大寳	乾元大宝	958

Chinese coinage (12th–17th centuries)

Importation of Chinese coinage

From the 12th century, the expansion of trade and barter again highlighted the need for a currency. Chinese coinage came to be used as the standard currency of Japan, for a period lasting from the 12th to the 17th century. Coins were obtained from China through trade or through "Wakō" piracy. Coins were also imported from Annam and Korea.
There is evidence to suggest that the Yuan dynasty used to extensively export Chinese cash coins to Japan for local circulation. The Sinan shipwreck, which was a ship from Ningbo to Hakata that sank off the Korean coast in the year 1323, carried some 8,000 strings of cash coins, which weighed about 26,775 kg.

Imitations of Chinese coinage

As the Chinese coins were not in sufficient number as trade and economy expanded, local Japanese imitations of Chinese coins were made from the 14th century, especially imitations of Ming coins, with inscribed names identical to those of contemporary Chinese coins. These coins had a very low value compared to Chinese coins, and several of them had to be exchanged for just one Chinese coin. This situation continued until the beginning of the Edo period, when a new system was put in place.
File:Bundles of 100 copper Mon coins.jpg|thumb|Bundles of 100 copper "Mon" coins; they were the official currency of Japan in the Muromachi period, from 1336 until 1870.|276x276px

Local experiments (16th century)

The growth of the economy and trade meant that small copper currency became insufficient to cover the amounts that were being exchanged. During the Sengoku period, the characteristics of the future Edo period system began to emerge. Local Lords developed trade, abolishing monopolistic guilds, which led to the need for large-denomination currencies. From the 16th century, local experiments started to be made, with the minting of local coins, sometimes in gold. Especially the Takeda clan of Kōshū minted gold coins which were later adopted by the Tokugawa shogunate.
Hideyoshi unified Japan, and thus centralized most of the minting of large denomination silver and gold coins, effectively putting in place the basis of a unified currency system. Hideyoshi developed the large Ōban plate, also called the Tenshō Ōban, in 1588, a predecessor to Tokugawa gold coinage.
A common practice in that period was to melt gold into copper molds for convenience, derived from the sycee manufacturing method. These were called Bundōkin, of which there were two types, the small Kobundō, and the large Ōbundō. A Kobundō would represent about 373 g in gold.

Tokugawa currency (17th–19th centuries)

was a unitary and independent metallic monetary system established by shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1601 in Japan, and which lasted throughout the Tokugawa period until its end in 1867.
From 1601, Tokugawa coinage consisted of gold, silver, and bronze denominations. The denominations were fixed, but the rates actually fluctuated on the exchange market. Tokugawa started by minting Keicho gold and silver coins, and Chinese copper coins were later replaced by Kan'ei Tsuho coins in 1670.
The material for the coinage came from gold and silver mines across Japan. For this purpose, new gold mines were opened, such as the Sado and Toi gold mines in the Izu Peninsula. Regarding diamond coins, the Kan'ei Tsūhō coin came to replace the Chinese coins that had been in circulation in Japan, as well as those that were privately minted, and became the legal tender for small denominations.
Yamada Hagaki, Japan's first notes, were issued around 1600 by Shinto priests also working as merchants in the Ise-Yamada, in exchange for silver. This was earlier than the first goldsmith notes issued in England around 1640. The first known feudal note was issued by the Fukui clan in 1661. During the 17th century, the feudal domains developed a system of feudal notes, giving currency to pledged notes issued by the lord of the domain, in exchange for convertibility to gold, silver or copper. Japan thus combined gold, silver, and copper standards with the circulation of paper money.
Tokugawa coinage remained in use during the Sakoku period of seclusion, although it was progressively debased to try to manage government deficits. The first debasement, in 1695, was called the Genroku Recoinage.