Coins of Japan

Preface

With the object of shewing the characters on the various coins of Japan in as clear a manner as possible, tracings were made which were afterwards photographed and reproduced by half tone process. By this means the shadows of the characters in relief on the coins have been eliminated. If the resulting illustrations are more of the nature of sketches than full pictures, they may at least claim to shew the coins in their true proportions, both with regard to size and the delineation of the characters. In a few instances, where the half tone figures have been imperfect, wood cuts have been used to replace them. If some of the characters are not clear in evury detail, I would plead that it is not always possible to obtain perfect specimens. 'Che best available ones have been drawn upon for this purpose, from my own collection and those of my friends Mr. Morita Jihei and Dr. Majima, to whom I extend my hearty thanks.

I wish also to express 103? appreciation of the work done b37 Messrs. Yuzawa and Takechi in preparing translations and to thank Miss Sato for the preparation of the index. To Mr. Yuzawa especially, am I much indebted for careful and conscientious labour and particularly for his assistance in elucidating the archaic characters to be found in an appendix to this volume. To Professor Chamberlain, for kind advice and the loan of historical works, and also to Mr. Mason for much generous help in the correction of proofs, m37 indebtedness is great.

For the knowledge of the coins themselves, I am mainly under obligation to Mr. Muramatsu, the well known antiquary, who imparted to me, in the most frank and generous manner, the results of a ripe experience, extending for thirty 37ears and ranging over all the coins of China, Annam, Corea and Japan. He iv

PREFACE.

has been no less kind in the help which he has given in the preparation of this work.

As I have stated elsewhere, the translation of the year names is a matter of peculiar difficulty, because it is often impossible to bring their self contained announcements into line with each other. My attempt to do so may be held by those of high scholarship to be improper. On these and other matters I shall esteem it a favour to receive criticism and suggestions.

The pronounciation of the Japanese words will be facilitated if the reader remembers that the vowels have the Italian sound, that the letter G may soften to the sound of JSTg in going , but never takes the place of J. Full details will be found in any good Japanese grammar, such as those of Chamberlain or Aston. I have not attempted to distinguish between the long and short pronounciation of the letter O. There are many shades of emphasis given to this, and it would have been difficult to ensure perfect accuracy when so many other points need attention.

I may add that the many details incidental to a work of this nature have been gathered and arranged in the leisure moments of professional life. If the healthful counterpoise which this has afforded to the more serious work of a physican can contribute its quota, through this volume, to the relaxation of other brain workers, I shall feel that the drudgery of seeing it through the press has not been useless. In this respect my labours have been lightened by the attention and consideration of Messrs. Thorn and Son, who have undertaken the printing, not only of the text, but of nearly all the illustrations, and whose lithographic reproductions of the gold and silver coins have contributed much to the value of this work.

N. GORDON MUNRO.

Yokohama.

Contents

Page

Introduction vii

I. Prehistoric and Protohistoric 1

Introduction

There is something very fascinating in the study of Far Eastern coins. They do not appeal to us through any pictorial effect, but a subtle and impersonal charm pervades their inscriptions and the sentiments which they set forth.

They are written in characters which are a manifest survival of the picture writing of early man. He wrote, that is to s<T3r, scored or scratched,* various outline sketches of his doings and the more intimate facts of his surroundings, on bone, clay or other material. Previous to this, he had learned to utter speech sounds, (names nouns , by which things are known), in association with the various objects of his environment. Originally, these names were short and simple sounds, given probably, in imitation of some notable feature in the tiling which they served to distinguish. Longer words were formed by joining the simpler ones, and thus it is that language is capable of being resolved into simple sounds or syllables, which latter are again into elementary sounds, namely vowels and consonants.

The primitive pictures of objects have also undergone further development, but this did not keep pace with the evol ution of language. As speech is more important than writing, which, in early times was a crude and inefficient adjunct to it, it has resulted that many nations have reached quite an advanced stage in the arts of life without developing the art of writing to a useful degree. This art has always been of very slow growth, its progress being impeded in its early stages by reason of its

1. Tn Japanese also, the word ‘‘Kaku” means both to write and to scratch. The characters for Kaku, to write and Kaku, to scratch, are different because they were adopted in Japan long after the ideas were differentiated. Still, the character Sho or Kaku, to write, also means to sketch or draw.

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clumsiness and in coin potency to fully express the spoken idea. It is obvious that the change from the representation of the thing in itself to that of some special quality which it possessed, must have taken a long time to effect. To illustrate this by a familiar example, the sun in archaic Chinese is represented by 0 and the moon by Tj), which are pictorial outlines, (See appendix A) though they are now written 0 and ^ . It is easy to understand why the symbol 0 or|J came to be used for day, which is equivalent to one sun, but it probably was long before it occurred to any one to place the characters for sun and moon together to signifly light, or brightness.

From the idea of brightness to that of enlightment in the intellectual sense, is a still wider step, but the same character is used to convey this idea and may be seen on any of the Japanese coins of the present era of Meiji (ipjin), which means “Enlightened Government”. Thus it is that the pictorial writing of early man has gradually come to adapt itself to the expression of ideas other than those of the object which they originally delineated. It will interest the reader no doubt and assist his memory, to trace back the origin of the characters on the Japanese coins, to their archaic forms. With this object I have placed in an appendix a list of the characters on the antique coins with their primitive pictorial forms, as far as I can trace them, and the meanings which they probably conveyed.

It is generally supposed that the written language of the Chinese presents such a forbidding aspect and bristles with technical difficulties of almost insurmountable extent, so that none but those who devote their whole lifetime to the task, can hope to have more than a nodding acquaintance with it. To learn to write the characters is no easy matter, but it is not essential to

IN TROD UCTION.

IX master the writing of Chinese, while simply to read them is a good exercise for the attention, involving little or no fatigue. To be able to read the inscriptions on the coins of Japan involves a very limited area of ideographic acquirement, yet it is an end in itself and no one need feel incapable of quickly mastering it. This result achieved, the reader will have the satisfaction of having got to the root of his subject, and the pleasure of viewing or collecting Jdiese coins will be greatly enhanced.

The mottoes are often of great interest. They belong to the order of sentiment which is based partly on theological, and partly on purely human interest. “The First Treasure of Divine Merit’’, “The Eternal Treasure of Prosperous Peace”, are examples of the earlier mottoes, whose grandiose sentiments were often sadly at variance with the actual stateof tliecoinage, or the conditions that attended its debut. Many of these coins bear the name of the “Nengo” or year period in which th6y were issued, and serve in this way to punctuate Japanese history. It has been the custom, from very early times in Japan, to mark the occurrence of special events, such as an accession to the throne or some other fact of real or fancied significance, by changing the name of the period in which it occurred. The new period thus inaugurated, was named so as to conform in some way with the new event; thus the period Taiho, or Great Treasure (A. D. 701) marks the discovery of gold, or (more correctly perhaps) silver; Wado, or Japan Copper, the finding of this useful metal in notable amount; while Genwa (1615) or Commencement of Concord, celebrates the peace which though temporary, practically established the Tokugawa Dynasty on the throne of the Shogunate.

The coins themselves are especially interesting on account of their variety of design and motto, while those

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of the antique group carry us back over a thousand years to the dawn of Japanese history. Those little relics, precipitated as it were, from the obscurity of the past, beg to assure us that the civilisation ot‘ that time was no myth, but a real if elementary fact, and that they came into being in order to further the needs of a progressive people. To the Japanese collector, those coins of earlier origin are particularly fascinating on account of the “Sabi” which has formed uppn them and which bears testimony to their antiquity. The word “verdigris” may be used to convey an idea of this “Sabi” which is found on these bronze coins, but it does not quite cover all that is implied in this expression. The “basic acetate of copper” is doubtless apropos when the door plate is neglected and the copper stew pan wears bare, but I am convinced that this chemical substance is not the whole of “Sabi”.

Even in its literal sense, the expression “verdegris” is not always appropriate, for there is a blood-red Sabi which is supposed to take about a thousand years to form and which is found especially on those coins which have been buried with the dead. I do not know whether that time is absolutely necessary for the production of this red colour, but I have only seen it on coins of venerable age. As many of the antique coins in existence have been recovered from old graves, it is evident that some special condition must encourage this red Sabi, which is but seldom found. Of the green Sabi there are many kinds and varied hues. Sometimes it is of a dark olive tint, sometimes it is almost black, or it may be grass green or even blue. The best of all, no matter the colour, is when it lies on the coin with a thick glaze upon it, like the varnish of a Cremona violin. Rarely it is almost transparent and I have seen it fill up the body of the coin, so that the characters were covered, though

INTBOD IJCT10N.

xi plainly to be seen underneath the translucent coating. Here probably, some silicate (perhaps of lead) had formed a glassy covering’. Indeed it may be questioned whether the word Sabi does not include many chemical compounds of the various metals which are to be found on the bronze of these coins. When one has been long buried in lime soil, it acquires a Sabi of green mixed with creamy filling, often crystalline. In water containing iron, it becomes coated with a thin yellowish film and it is astonishing how very fresh and new may be the appearance of coins which have been immersed for centuries in water.

The antique coins are frequently very brittle and require careful handling, while one wonders often at their exceedingly light weight. Five specimens of nearly or quite the same size, of a coin called the Jinko Kaiho, in my collection, weighed respectively in centigrammes, 500.5, 465.5, 456, and 355, whereas the book called the Dai Nihon Kwalieislii gives the heaviest weight of this coin as 1.05 fun, which is about 394 centigrammes, This difference of 21 per cent in the weight of coins which present not more than five per cent variation in size, is remarkable and at first sight might be attributed to some dissimilarity in the quality of the metal of which they were made. The reason however is to be found in the action of the earthy salts with moisture, and perhaps the action of free ammonia in the soil, which combine to dissolve the metals (especially the baser ones) of which the coin is made. Thus it acquires a spongy consistence and becomes both light and brittle. Another factor in lessening the weight of these coins accounts also for the frequency with which one comes across coins which have no Sabi at all. Japan is a country of earthquakes and consequently wooden houses, and it is not surprising that conflagations are very common. Many genuine old coins

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have been burnt in this manner and the softer metais have been melted or vaporised, leaving1 the copper and some other residum behind. The Sabi has of course shared the fate of the above and disappeared. It is an unwritten law that this garb of antiquity cannot be bestowed more than once upon the same coin, but it may happen that an attenuated and inferior Sabi forms on a coin which has been burnt, so that the above statement must not be taken as absolute. For a reason which will presently be mentioned, the collector of Japanese coins looks with suspicion upon such burnt coins, though many of them are quite genuine.

The earliest record of coin collecting in Japan, appears to have been written before the period of Keicho, 1596, 1615, but it was not until the Genroku period 1681-1704- that it became a regular cult. At this time the family of the Tokugawa was established in the office of Shogun and invested with the control of affairs, and the Daimyos were beginning to settle down to something like a peaceful life. The collecting of coins soon became a fashionable craze, and the active Japanese mind found some vent for its surplus energy in the classification of these tokens of civilisation. The coins of China were especially sought after: even those of Annam and Corea seem to have been held in greater esteem than those of Japan itself. Like the “Tulip craze” in Europe, this enthusiasm affected all classes of society from the Daimyo to the artisan. Bare coins were enthroned in ivory boxes, decorated with lacquer of gold, the pride and joy of their owners and winners of the respectful admiration of the select few who were permitted to view their charms. Much literature was devoted to the subject and though mistakes were not few, still there was much accurate work done in the classification, not only of Japanese but of other ideographic coins. Indeed, with the exception

IN Tit 01) XJCTION.

xiii

of the Chinese work entitled the “Ko Sen Wai77, it may be said that the accuracy of tiie classification by Japanese collectors and scholars has not been approached by those of the greater empire. From the period of Bunsei, 1818-30, many works have appeared which would do credit to any learned society of Europe. It is from these that I have gleaned in the following pages most of the information which is contained therein.

It will be understood that such enthusiasm and zeal in the acquistion of coins, of which many were rare and some were scarcely to be duplicated, led to their imitation on a very wide scale. As the Chinese coins were held in greater estimation than those of Japan, it follows that these have been mostly the subject of imitation, but the rare coins of this eounry have also been forged for the delectation of the unwary collector. It is well to be specially careful therefore, when offered these rare specimens, most of which are no longer obtainable in the market. The beginner would do well to confine his attention to those that are easily procurable. Specimens even of the antique coins can be had for a few shillings each, though the better and rarer kinds are very expensive. From a respectable dealer one can purchase “models,57 imitations, of the rare varieties, some of which are “really old77 (but made within the last two hundred years) and he can trust to time and extended experience to acquire some of the genuine ones.

Until the present era of Meiji, the government coins of Japan, with the exception of some gold and silver ones, have been cast, not struck. The currency was copper diluted with other metals that is to say, bronze, and the quality was rather inferior in many of the coins, so that the metal was not suited to the process of stamping. When a coin was to be made, a sample was engraved and sub-

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mitted to the officials in charge of the currency. From the impression of this on clay, a certain number of “Tane” or “Seed” coins were made of the best finish, and these were used for the purpose of “sowing” or impressing the surfaces of the coin on clay moulds. They are therefore much rarer than the ordinary coins and are surrounded by the halo of original sanctity. These moulds were then cut out so as to form connecting channels between each coin impression. After the mould was heated, the molten metal was poured in. It will be understood that one side of the mould contained the obverse and the other the reverse, which were apposed, so that the resulting cast was a complete coin, or rather a series of coins arranged in rows and connected by the metal which had been poured through the connecting channels. These were broken off and filed so as to have uniform edges.

It should be well kept in mind that the coins of Japan have a flat edge like this n ; not rounded like this, r This point is of great importance, for coins which are forged or imitated have been cast on a smaller scale and in doing so it is very difficult to get this flat edge. The filing of the edges quite flat, was done with many coins in rouleaux, so that many edges were finished at one time. This art is said to have been specialised in certain families. This may be so; at any rate it is certain that this edge is something quite special, and not to be easily imitated. When the edge of an imitation coin has been flattened it may usually be noticed that it is not perfectly even, the result of filing it as an individual coin. The body of the coin is less likely to be of uniform thickness, especially at the edges, owing to imperfection of the mould and the smaller quantity of metal used. The bronze coins have almost always a square central hole. In the case of the antique coins this was not filed, so that early coins with

INTRODUCTION.

xv marks of the file on the edges of this hole are to be regarded with suspicion.

The quality of the metal used is also of much importance in deciding the reliability of the older coins, it being less brassy in colour in the genuine than in the imitated ones. The mould which was used in the making of government coins was usually of the finest clay, so that but few marks were left on the surface of the resulting coin. This is not the case with imitation coins. In the vast majority of these a distinct sandy appearance is to be noticed in the field of the coin, as if cast from a course grained mould. Then there is something quite characteristic about the appearance of the writing in the genuine government coins, which I can scarcely describe, but which like the expression of a face, gives at the first glance, an indication as to their real nature. The characters are cleaner cut, and less rounded on the surface than those of imitated coins, but wear and tear effect a certain degree of obliteration which is apt to be mistaken for this. In such cases however, attention to the above points will enable the connoisseur to distinguish almost infallibly between true and false coins. Some of the imitations which have been made during the last two centuries are so exactly like the genuine coins that a careful scrutiny is essential and here the condition of the Sabi is of importance, for it is most difficult to imitate. Like the famous Cremona varnish, it imparts to an antique coin the semblance of authentic age and like it, has had many imitators. Chemical treatment has not reached such a degree of perfection that an expert can be deceived. The best substitute hitherto found, and a good one, is the coating of the coin with coloured lacquer. To detect this it is usually necessary to scratch the coin, and owners are naturaly unwilling to permit their treasures to be injured.

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There are three methods by which the best imitations are made. The first consists in making an impression of the real coin in clay, which is then used as a mould. The resulting coin is an exact model of the true one, but is slightly smaller, because the clay mould, which has to be heated for the reception of the molten metal, contracts somewhat in the process. This is sometimes counteracted by increasing the width of the rim; hence suspicion is apt to attach to unusally wide margins in certain coins, though there are some varieties which are specially characterised by this feature. There is something about the appearance of such coins, as above stated, which leads one to suspect them, the characters having a lack of definition and the body a want of uniform surface. The second method consists of taking a real coin and either renovating an indistinct character, or cutting out one or two characters and replacing them by others, so as to change the coin to the likeness of a rarer one. Sometimes a portion of a coin is broken off, and one character altered so as to make it appear as an imperfect specimen of a rare variety. The character can be replaced by excavating the site of the new character, which is then filled in with molten metal and carved out, after hardening. The third plan is to paint with lacquer one or more characters on a coin, or to alter the style of writing in this way. Some of these imitations are perfect works of art, and not at all easy to detect. Poorer imitations are made by pasting a tracing of a genuine coin on wood, which is then engraved and used to make the impression on the clay mould. They have even been made by being copied from the illustrations in works on numismatics, but are then easily detected. It is not uncommon to see specimens which some painstaking person has evolved from his inner consciousness, no such coin having been

IN TROD VCTION xvii in existence. Probably these had their moment of triumph, followed by exposure and disgrace. Some of them are nicely made and may belong to the order of fancy coins or medals, of which there is a superabundance. Many of the latter were made of silver, in imitation of noted coins. Together with the picture coins of Japan, they have a place in a work of this kind, though not current coin, nor properly speaking, coin at all. Illustrations of these will be found in the last chapter.

Tracings on paper are of great value to the collector of ideographic coins, who cannot always possess genuine specimens. At first these were made by painting ink on the coins, which were then covered with tissue paper, which shewed the impression in an incomplete way, on the other side. The present method was first used by the Daimyo Masatsuna Kucliiki, ruler of Fukuchiyama, who adapted it from the old method of taking impressions of ancient tiles. The coin is placed on a piece of wooden board, covered with three or four layers of Japanese paper. This is slightly moistened at the spot where the coin is to be placed, so that the latter may not slip during the process. A piece of thin tissue paper, preferably of the finely ribbed variety known as “Hakushi,” is moistened with water and after being half dried, is placed over the coin and pressed closely to it with a small pad of cotton wool. Any excess of moisture is removed by pressing another piece of tissue paper upon it. The clearness of the impression is thus secured, as the paper will not take the ink properly if too damp. The ink used is of that pasty kind, called “Niku,” having an oily menstruum which is made to saturate the fibres of a plant called theMogusa (Artemesia moxa). This is covered with silk, to prevent the fibres from getting on to the pad which transfers the ink to the coin.

IN TROD UCTIOjV.

This pad is made with cotton wool, about three quarters of an inch in diameter and is covered with fine silk. By pressing it on to the ink, removing excess by rubbing it against another pad, and then lightly touching with it the paper covering the coin an excellent impression is obtained, which, after, drying, is indelible. Before drying, the slip of paper is pressed between blotting paper, so as to take out any creases that remain. In this manner I have prepared most of the illustrations for this work.

I would advise collectors of coins to adopt the method above outlined, so that they may have correct delineations for reference. To take the impression of a coin in this manner, occupies not more than three minutes for both obverse and reverse. Societies exist throughout Japan for the study of numismatics. These publish at varying intervals, journals which are illustrated simply by pasting these slips of tissue paper or “Uchigata” as they are called, on to the leaves. These might be exchanged for similar impressions of the coins of other lands and thus the science of numismatics could not fail to benefit.

The first book writtten on the coinage of Japan was called the “Kwacho Buien”,* or “Classified Collection of Coins”, but it only appeared in manuscript. It was written about the period of Tenwa, 1681-83. The story goes that the Daimyo Toyama of the Province of Etcliu was asked to write it, but being unable, or unwilling he asked one Tennojiya Cliozaemon of Osaka, to do so. The dislike of high, or military personages to have their names even academically associated with filthy lucre,

*. The origin of the word Kwacho, as a synonym for coin, dates back to the time of the To Dynasty of China. The Emperor Bokuso, so says the legend, gave a great reception at court, during which many butterflies entered the palace and clung to the flowers which decorated the reception hall. The courtiers and ladies had some difficulty in capturing these, and the Emperor ordered the butterflies to be caught in nets and sent to the houses of his guests. Imagine the surprise of the latter, when they found that they had turned to gold coins 1 Hence the word "Kwacho,” which means "Disguised Butterfly.”

INTROD UCTION.

xix was most marked. The next work of any note was entitled the “Hanji Roku,” or “Catalogue of Coins”. It was also written by hand and appeared in 14 volumes, during the period of Kyoho, 1716-35. The author was Senoo Ryusai. The “Wakan Kohodzukan,” or “Illustrations of Japanese and Chinese Coins,” is another work of the same period, written by Nakatani Kozan. On account of the lack of reference, there are mistakes in these early works, but they are evidence of the keen spirit of enquiry and scientific investigation which was abroad in the land a century and a half before the “civilisation” of the Meiji period.

About the period of Meiwa, A. D. 1764-71, F ujiwara Teikan, a learned man and ardent antiquarian, wrote several books on coins, his work on the Kwanei coins being still regarded as the classical treatise on the subject. About this time or a little earlier, Unno Somin of Osaka, who had acquired a very complete collection of Chinese and Japanese coins, wrote a “Continuation of the Kacho Ruien”, but it was not printed. Towards the end of the eighteenth century the daimyo Kuchiki Masatsuna, better known by his nom de plume Riukyo, ordered one of his retainers to publish the “Kokon Senkwa Kan” in his own name, as it was then considered beneath the dignity of one of his rank to write on matters, connected with money. This work is in twenty volumes and is of great assistance to collectors. In the latter part of that century too, the celebrated book called the “Wakan Sen li” or “Collection of Japanese and Chinese Coins” was written by Yosbikawa Iken. The first volume, dealing with the Coins of Japan was alone issued ; it is a comprehensive treatise on the Japanese sen, but does not go into the varieties of the Kwanei coins.