During the Edo period

Edo period

The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....

, feudal domains of Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 issued scrip

Scrip

Scrip is an American term for any substitute for currency which is not legal tender and is often a form of credit. Scrips were created as company payment of employees and also as a means of payment in times where regular money is unavailable, such as remote coal towns, military bases, ships on long...

 called for use within the domain. This paper currency

Currency

In economics, currency refers to a generally accepted medium of exchange. These are usually the coins and banknotes of a particular government, which comprise the physical aspects of a nation's money supply...

 supplemented the coinage of the Tokugawa shogunate

Tokugawa shogunate

The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...

. Most scrip carried a face value in silver

Silver

Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

 coinage, but gold

Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

 and copper

Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...

 scrip also circulated. In addition, some scrip was marked for exchange in kind for a commodity such as rice

Rice

Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...

. In addition to those issued by the domains, forms of paper money were also issued by rice broker

Rice broker

Rice brokers, which rose to power and significance in Osaka and Edo in the Edo period of Japanese history, were the forerunners to Japan's banking system...

s in Osaka

Osaka

is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...

 and Edo. Originally used only as a representation of amounts of rice (subdivisions of koku

Koku

The is a Japanese unit of volume, equal to ten cubic shaku. In this definition, 3.5937 koku equal one cubic metre, i.e. 1 koku is approximately 278.3 litres. The koku was originally defined as a quantity of rice, historically defined as enough rice to feed one person for one year...

) owned by the scrip-holder and held in the Osaka or Edo merchants' storehouse, these scrips quickly came to be used as currency.
Japan's first banknotes, called Yamada Hagaki (山田葉書), were issued around 1600 by Shinto

Shinto

or Shintoism, also kami-no-michi, is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written...

 priests also working as merchants in the Ise

Ise

In geography, Ise may refer to:*Ise, Mie, a city in Japan**Ise Shrine, a Shinto shrine located in Ise, Mie*Ise Ekiti, a city in Nigeria*Ise, Norway, a village in Norway*Ise Province, an ancient province of Japan...

-Yamada (modern Mie Prefecture

Mie Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan which is part of the Kansai regions on Honshū island. The capital is the city of Tsu.- History :Until the Meiji Restoration, Mie prefecture was known as Ise Province and Iga Province....

), in exchange for silver. This was earlier than the first goldsmith

Goldsmith

A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Since ancient times the techniques of a goldsmith have evolved very little in order to produce items of jewelry of quality standards. In modern times actual goldsmiths are rare...

 notes issued in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 around 1640.

An early issue of domain scrip took place in the Fukui domain

Fukui Domain

The was a feudal domain in Echizen Province of Japan during the Edo period. It is also sometimes called '. The family name of the heads of the domain is "Matsudaira".- List of heads :# Hideyasu# Tadanao...

 in 1661. As early as 1610, private notes had been printed for purposes such as payment of workers on construction projects. Domains issued scrip to supplement coins in times of shortage and to adjust the amount in circulation. They also exchanged scrip for coins to improve the financial situation of the domain. By the end of the period, eight out of ten domains issued paper, as did a few daikan-sho and hatamoto

Hatamoto

A was a samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate of feudal Japan. While all three of the shogunates in Japanese history had official retainers, in the two preceding ones, they were referred to as gokenin. However, in the Edo period, hatamoto were the upper vassals of the Tokugawa...

.

Accepting scrip always carried the risk of forfeiture. During the Edo period, the shogunate seized some domains, and transferred others; on such occasions, the new daimyo might not honor the old scrip. Following the condemnation and death of the daimyo Asano Naganori

Asano Naganori

was the daimyo of the Akō Domain in Japan . His title was Takumi no Kami . He is known as the person who triggered a series of incidents retold in a story known as Chushingura, one of the favourite themes of kabuki, joruri and Japanese books and films.He was born in Edo as the eldest son of Asano...

, for example, Ōishi Yoshio

Oishi Yoshio

was the chamberlain of the Akō Domain in Harima Province , Japan . He is known as the leader of the Forty-seven Ronin in their 1702 vendetta and thus the hero of the Chūshingura...

, a house elder

KARO

KARO is a radio station licensed to serve Nyssa, Oregon, USA. The station is owned by the Educational Media Foundation.It broadcasts a Contemporary Christian music format as part of the Air 1 network.-History:...

 in the Akō Domain

Ako Domain

The was a domain in feudal Japan. It was located in Harima Province and coincided with the present-day cities of Akō and Aioi and the town of Kamigōri in Hyōgo Prefecture. The domain had its headquarters at Akō Castle....

 (and later the leader of the Forty-seven Ronin

Forty-seven Ronin

The revenge of the , also known as the Forty-seven Samurai, the Akō vendetta, or the took place in Japan at the start of the 18th century...

), ordered the redemption of scrip at 60% of face value. In addition, in times of financial difficulty, the domain might simply declare scrip void. Early in the period, domains printed their own scrip; later, they operated through prominent merchants, whose credibility was important to the acceptance of the currency.

The shogunate prohibited the use of scrip in 1707. In 1730, however, Tokugawa Yoshimune

Tokugawa Yoshimune

was the eighth shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, ruling from 1716 until his abdication in 1745. He was the son of Tokugawa Mitsusada, the grandson of Tokugawa Yorinobu, and the great-grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu.-Lineage:...

 authorized domains to issue paper with time limits for redemption. Large domains (200,000 koku and above) could issue currency valid for 25 years, and small domains for 15 years. His son Ieshige

Tokugawa Ieshige

Tokugawa Ieshige; 徳川 家重 was the ninth shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan.The first son of Tokugawa Yoshimune, his mother was the daughter of Okubo Tadanao, known as Osuma no kata. His childhood name was Nagatomi-maru. He underwent the genpuku coming-of-age ceremony in 1725...

 prohibited new issue of scrip, and restricted the circulation of scrip other than that exchangeable for silver, in 1759. Despite the prohibitions, domains in severe financial straits occasionally issued paper money.

Each domain formulated its own rules about its scrip. While there were some that forbade the shogunate's coinage, many allowed both coins and scrip to circulate. As a rule, scrip circulated only within the domain that issued it, but there were exceptions. For example, paper issued by the Kishū domain in 1866 was also used in Yamato

Yamato Province

was a province of Japan, located in Kinai, corresponding to present-day Nara Prefecture in Honshū. It was also called . At first, the name was written with one different character , and for about ten years after 737, this was revised to use more desirable characters . The final revision was made in...

, Izumi

Izumi Province

was a province of Japan. It is also referred to as . It lay in Kinai, and its area today composes the south-western part of Osaka Prefecture . The Ōshōji in Sakai was the border with Settsu Province, until the beginning of the Meiji period, when the boundary was changed to be at the Yamato River...

, Kawachi

Kawachi Province

was a province of Japan in the eastern part of modern Osaka Prefecture. It originally held the southwestern area that was split off into Izumi Province...

, Settsu

Settsu Province

was a province of Japan, which today comprises the eastern part of Hyōgo Prefecture and the northern part of Osaka Prefecture. It was also referred to as or .Osaka and Osaka Castle were the main center of the province.-History:...

, and Harima Province

Harima Province

or Banshu was a province of Japan in the part of Honshū that is the southwestern part of present-day Hyōgo Prefecture. Harima bordered on Tajima, Tamba, Settsu, Bizen, and Mimasaka Provinces. Its capital was Himeji....

s.

In 1871, the Government of Meiji Japan

Government of Meiji Japan

The Government of Meiji Japan was the government which was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain, Chōshū Domain and Tenno. The Meiji government was the early government of the Empire of Japan....

 ordered the abolition of the han system

Abolition of the han system

The was an act, in 1871, of the new Meiji government of the Empire of Japan to replace the traditional feudal domain system and to introduce centralized government authority . This process marked the culmination of the Meiji Restoration in that all daimyo were required to return their authority...

 and ordered the exchange of all scrip for the national currency. Exchange continued until 1879. In the interim, some scrip carried markings from the central government indicating the value in yen

Japanese yen

The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third most traded currency in the foreign exchange market after the United States dollar and the euro. It is also widely used as a reserve currency after the U.S. dollar, the euro and the pound sterling...

 and the smaller sen and rin.

Sources

This article incorporates information from the Japanese Wikipedia.

• Bank of Japan
• 新井政義（編集者）『日本史事典』。東京：旺文社1987(p. 329)
• 竹内理三
  Takeuchi Rizō
  is a Japanese historian. His is best known for his work on historical records pertaining to the ancient and Middle Ages of Japanese history.-Background:Takeuchi was born in Aichi Prefecture on December 20, 1907...
  
  （編）『日本史小辞典』。東京：角川書店1985(p. 290)

External links

• 日本貨幣史10 Bank of Japan
  Bank of Japan
  is the central bank of Japan. The Bank is often called for short. It has its headquarters in Chuo, Tokyo.-History:Like most modern Japanese institutions, the Bank of Japan was founded after the Meiji Restoration...
  
  site (in Japanese) includes photographs of both early and late Edo period scrip. Left to right: Silver, gold, coin
• Hansatsu (clan note) for 1 momme of silver at the British Museum with photo and explanation
• Bank of Canada review
• Purdue site including scans of scrip