The was a Japanese oval

gold coin A gold coin is a coin that is made mostly or entirely of gold. Most gold coins minted since 1800 are 90–92% gold (22fineness#Karat, karat), while most of today's gold bullion coins are pure gold, such as the Britannia (coin), Britannia, Canad ...

, cast on the order of

Tokugawa Ieyasu Tokugawa Ieyasu (born Matsudaira Takechiyo; 31 January 1543 – 1 June 1616) was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was the third of the three "Gr ...

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

('' Keichō'' era)

feudal Japan The first human inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago have been traced to the Paleolithic, around 38–39,000 years ago. The Jōmon period, named after its cord-marked pottery, was followed by the Yayoi period in the first millennium BC whe ...

and a part of

Tokugawa coinage Tokugawa coinage 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. History The establishment of Tokugawa co ...

History

Minting of koban, '' Ōban'' and other coins began in year 1601 (year 5 of the '' Keichō'' era), signifying the beginning of the

. The '' Keichō'' era koban was issued with a face value of one ''

ryō The was a gold currency unit in the shakkanhō system in pre- Meiji Japan. It was eventually replaced with a system based on the '' yen''. Origins The ''ryō'' was originally a unit of weight from China, the ''tael.'' It came into use in Ja ...

''. Despite the existence of other gold and silver coins at the time, through a series of reforms the

Bakufu , officially , was the title of the military rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, except during parts of the Kamak ...

managed to stabilize the koban to ''

'' 1:1 valuation by the end of the seventeenth century. Nowadays, gold-foil cardboard versions of koban are sold as ''Engimono'' (縁起物, ''talisman/lucky charm'') at

Shinto shrine A Stuart D. B. Picken, 1994. p. xxiii is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more kami, , the deities of the Shinto religion. The Also called the . is where a shrine's patron is or are enshrined.Iwanami Japanese dic ...

Foreign trade

The

Japanese economy The economy of Japan is a highly developed mixed economy, often referred to as an East Asian model. According to the IMF forecast for 2025, it will be the fifth-largest economy in the world by nominal GDP as well as by purchasing power par ...

before the mid-19th century was based largely on rice. The standard unit of measure was the

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. One koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about of rice. It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1,000 gō. One ''gō'' is the traditional volume of a single serving of rice (before co ...

, the amount of rice needed to feed one person for one year. Farmers made their tax payments of rice which eventually made its way into the coffers of the central government; and similarly, vassals were annually paid a specified ''koku'' of rice. The Portuguese who came to Japan in the 1550s, however, preferred gold to rice; and the koban, which was equal to three koku of rice, became the coin of choice in foreign trade. Some feudal lords began minting their own koban, but the value was debased with alloys of varying gold content. Edo authorities issued one currency reform after another and just about all of them debased the koban further. Additionally, counterfeit koban circulated after each reform, their value slightly less than that of the then current koban. By the time of Commodore

Matthew C. Perry Matthew Calbraith Perry (April 10, 1794 – March 4, 1858) was a United States Navy officer who commanded ships in several wars, including the War of 1812 and the Mexican–American War. He led the Perry Expedition that Bakumatsu, ended Japan' ...

's visit in 1853, counterfeit koban from previous eras were preferred by merchants to the newer variants. The fraudulent older pieces were more valuable than newly minted koban. With the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

in 1868 a new series of coins was ordered based on European currency systems and the koban was discontinued.

Cultural references

Koban are commonly seen on ''

maneki-neko The ''maneki-neko'' (招き猫, ) is a common Japanese figurine which is often believed to bring good luck to the owner. In modern times, they are usually made of ceramic or plastic. The figurine depicts a cat, traditionally a calico Japanese Bo ...

'' figurines.

Meowth Meowth, known in Japanese as , is a List of Pokémon, Pokémon species in Nintendo and Game Freak's Pokémon, ''Pokémon'' media franchise, and the first stage of its Gameplay of Pokémon#Pokémon evolution, evolved form, Persian (Pokémon), Pers ...

, a ''maneki-neko''-inspired creature in the ''

Pokémon is a Japanese media franchise consisting of List of Pokémon video games, video games, Pokémon (TV series), animated series and List of Pokémon films, films, Pokémon Trading Card Game, a trading card game, and other related media. The fran ...

'' series, has a koban on its forehead.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Koban (Coin) Gold coins Coins of Japan Economy of feudal Japan Modern obsolete currencies Japanese gold coins Currencies of Japan

History

Foreign trade

Cultural references

See also

References