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 (22 karat), while most of today's gold bullion coins are pure gold, such as the Britannia, Canadian Maple Leaf, and American Bu ...

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional ''daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was character ...

feudal Japan The first human inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago have been traced to prehistoric times around 30,000 BC. The Jōmon period, named after its cord-marked pottery, was followed by the Yayoi period in the first millennium BC when new inven ...

, equal to 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 J ...

'', another early Japanese monetary unit. It was a central 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 c ...

. The ''

Keichō was a after '' Bunroku'' and before '' Genna''. This period spanned from October 1596 to July 1615. The reigning emperors were and . Change of era * 1596 : The era name was changed to ''Keichō'' to mark the passing of various natural disaste ...

'' era ''koban'', a

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

piece, contained about one ryō of gold, so that koban carried a face value of one ryō. However, successive mintings of the koban had varying (usually diminishing) amounts of gold. As a result, the ryō as a unit of weight of gold and the ryō as the face value of the koban were no longer synonymous. In modern times, they are sold as ''Engimono'' (at-least, gold-foil cardboard versions), from Shinto shrines.

Foreign trade

The Japanese economy before the mid-19th century was based largely on rice. The standard unit of measure was the koku, 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'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 practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were r ...

in 1868 a new series of coins was ordered based on European currency systems and the koban was discontinued.Stevenson, Jed
"PASTIMES: Numismatics"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

.'' September 3, 1989. Accessed August 19, 2009.

Cultural references

In the Konami franchise ''

Ganbare Goemon , known as ''Goemon'' and ''Mystical Ninja'' internationally, is a video game series created and produced by Konami. Etsunobu Ebisu is the joint producer of the franchise. These games revolve around the main character, Goemon a ...

'', the lead character Goemon throws koban as

shuriken A ''shuriken'' ( ja, 手裏剣; literally: "hidden hand blade") is a Japanese concealed weapon that was used as a hidden dagger or metsubushi to distract or misdirect. They are also known as throwing stars, or ninja stars, although they we ...

s. The Japanese idiom is an equivalent for

casting pearls before swine Casting is a manufacturing process in which a liquid material is usually poured into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowed to solidify. The solidified part is also known as a ''casting'', which is ejected ...

. The Maneki Neko is often depicted holding a ''koban'', though the koban most Maneki Neko hold is indicated to be worth ten million ''ryō''. In ''

Super Mario Odyssey is a 2017 platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. An entry in the ''Super Mario'' series, it follows Mario and his new ally Cappy—a sentient hat that allows Mario to control other characters and objects— ...

'', the regional coins in the feudal Japan themed Bowser's Kingdom are kobans with

Bowser , or King Koopa, is a fictional character, the primary antagonist in Nintendo's ''Mario'' franchise, and the arch-nemesis of Mario. In Japan, the character bears the title of . Bowser is the leader of the turtle-like Koopa race. Despite the ...

's face on them.

References

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

Foreign trade

Cultural references

See also

References