The was a Japanese oval
gold coin in
Edo period feudal Japan, equal to one ''
ryō'', another early Japanese monetary unit. It was a central part of
Tokugawa coinage.
The ''
Keichō'' era ''koban'', a
gold 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 is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. 1 koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about . It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1000 gō. One ''gō'' is the volume of the "rice cup", the plastic measuring cup that is supplied ...
, 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 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.'' September 3, 1989. Accessed August 19, 2009.
Cultural references
In the Konami franchise ''
Ganbare Goemon'', the lead character Goemon throws koban as
shurikens.
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'', the regional coins in the feudal Japan themed Bowser's Kingdom are kobans with
Bowser's face on them.
See also
*
Ōban
An Ōban (大判) was a monetary ovoid gold plate, and the largest denomination of Tokugawa coinage
Tokugawa coinage was a unitary and independent metallic monetary system established by ''shōgun'' Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1601 in Japan, and which la ...
*
Ryō
*
Omamori
*
Ofuda
**
Fulu
*
Spirit tablet
A spirit tablet, memorial tablet, or ancestral tablet, is a placard used to designate the seat of a deity or past ancestor as well as to enclose it. The name of the deity or past ancestor is usually inscribed onto the tablet. With origins in tr ...
*
Thai Buddha amulet
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Koban (Coin)
Gold coins
Coins of Japan
Economy of feudal Japan
Modern obsolete currencies