, also romanized as ''Wadō-kaichin'' or called ''Wadō-kaihō'', is the oldest official Japanese coinage, first mentioned for 29 August 708 on order of

Empress Genmei , also known as Empress Genmyō, was the 43rd monarch of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 元明天皇 (43) retrieved August 22, 2013. according to the traditional order of succession. Genmei's reign spanned the years 707 through ...

. It was long considered to be the first type of coin produced in Japan. Analyses of several findings of '' Fuhon-sen'' (富夲銭) in Asuka have shown that those coins were manufactured from 683.

Description

The ''wadōkaichin'' was first produced following the discovery of large copper deposits in Japan during the early

8th century The 8th century is the period from 701 (represented by the Roman numerals DCCI) through 800 (DCCC) in accordance with the Julian Calendar. In the historiography of Europe the phrase the long 8th century is sometimes used to refer to the peri ...

at what is now the Wadō Archaeological Site. The coins, which are round with a square hole in the center, remained in circulation until 958 CE. These were the first of a series of coins collectively called ''jūnizeni'' or .Nussbaum
p. 539.
/ref> This coinage was inspired by the Chinese

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

coinage (唐銭) named '' Kaigen Tsūhō'' (Chinese: 開元通宝, ''Kāiyuán tōngbǎo''), first minted in

Chang'an Chang'an (; zh, t=長安, s=长安, p=Cháng'ān, first=t) is the traditional name of the city now named Xi'an and was the capital of several Chinese dynasties, ranging from 202 BCE to 907 CE. The site has been inhabited since Neolithic time ...

in 621 CE. The ''wadōkaichin'' had the same specifications as the Chinese coin, with a diameter of 2.4 cm and a weight of 3.75 g. Japan Currency Museum (日本貨幣博物館) permanent exhibit.

Etymology

The name ''wadōkaichin'' comes from the Japanese pronunciation of the four characters in the coin's inscription: . * The first two characters literally mean + . This was likely chosen as a fortuitous homophone for the era name : the is also used to mean "Japan", and may also be a ''

ryakuji In Japanese language, ''Ryakuji'' ( "abbreviated characters", or ''hissha ryakuji'', meaning "handwritten abbreviated characters") are colloquial simplifications of kanji. Status Ryakuji are not covered in the Kanji Kentei, nor are they ...

'' or

abbreviated An abbreviation () is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method including shortening, contraction, initialism (which includes acronym), or crasis. An abbreviation may be a shortened form of a word, usually ended with a trailing per ...

character for or "copper", in reference to the Japanese copper deposits.2007, (in Japanese), Britannica Japan Co., entry available onlin
here
/ref>1988, (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese),

Tōkyō Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital and most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is one of the most populous urban areas in the world. The Greater Tokyo Area, which ...

Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of comics, magazines, light novels, dictionaries, literature, non-fiction, home media, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but ...

, entry available onlin
here
/span> * The third character literally means "opening; to open", with an additional sense of "start; first". * The fourth character is unusual. It is considered to be either a variant form of meaning "rare, precious", or a ''

'' or

character for meaning "treasure, something precious".2006, (''

Daijirin is a comprehensive single-volume Japanese dictionary edited by , and first published by in 1988. This title is based upon two early Sanseidō dictionaries edited by Shōzaburō Kanazawa (金沢庄三郎, 1872–1967), ''Jirin'' (辞林 "Fores ...

''), Third Edition (in Japanese),

Sanseidō is a Japanese publishing company known for publishing dictionaries and textbooks. The headquarters is situated in the area between Suidōbashi Station and Kanda River, at a location previously used as a warehouse for the company's own printing ...

, 1995, ('' Daijisen'') (in Japanese),

, , entry available onlin
here
/span> This difference in interpretation gives rise to the alternative name for the coins, ''wadōkaihō''. Based in part on further research into writing conventions during the

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the capita ...

, the broad consensus in modern research appears to be the interpretation. : → Together, the third and fourth characters likely mean "first

currency A currency is a standardization of money in any form, in use or circulation as a medium of exchange, for example banknotes and coins. A more general definition is that a currency is a ''system of money'' in common use within a specific envi ...

Hoards of Wadōkaichin cash coins

In February 2015 Japanese archeologists discovered ritual jars filled with ''wadōkaichin'' and cash coins at the Tehara ruins in Rittō,

Shiga Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan in the Kansai region of Honshu. Shiga Prefecture has a population of 1,398,972 as of 1 February 2025 and has a geographic area of . Shiga Prefecture borders Fukui Prefecture to the north, Gifu Prefecture to th ...

. The jars were placed there as a part of a

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

ritual, which indicates that the site was likely a government office or the resident of an important local. On August 17, 2015 four ''wadōkaichin'' cache coins were discovered at the East Pagoda of Yakushi-ji,

Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government within the executive branch, charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also task ...

during a restoration. The ''wadōkaichin'' were located 1.3 meters east of a foundation rock at the bottom of the 1.7 meter-deep base of the East Pagoda of the temple. Experts from the

Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties The , also known by its former name, the Nara Research Institute for Cultural Properties, is one of two research institutes that comprise the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, an independent administrative institution created in 2001. Es ...

and the Nara Prefectural Archeological Institute of Kashihara believe that the ''wadōkaichin'' were buried at the East Pagoda during the groundbreaking ceremony of the

Buddhist temple A Buddhist temple or Buddhist monastery is the place of worship for Buddhism, Buddhists, the followers of Buddhism. They include the structures called vihara, chaitya, stupa, wat, khurul and pagoda in different regions and languages. Temples in B ...

and that these cache coins were used for purification purposes. According to the experts, this discovery at the Yakushi-ji is the oldest known example of the ancient Japanese practice of burying a cache of widely-circulated coins to purify a construction site anywhere in Japan.

Notes

References

* Brown, Delmer M. and Ichirō Ishida, eds. (1979)
''Gukanshō: The Future and the Past.''
Berkeley: University of California Press.
OCLC 251325323
* Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1959). ''The Imperial House of Japan.'' Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society
OCLC 194887
* Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005)
''Japan encyclopedia.''
Cambridge:

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou. The pres ...

.
OCLC 58053128
* Titsingh, Isaac. (1834)
''Annales des empereurs du Japon''
(''

Nihon Odai Ichiran Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea in t ...

''). Paris: Royal Asiatic Society, Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland
OCLC 5850691
* Varley, H. Paul. (1980). ''A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns: Jinnō Shōtōki of Kitabatake Chikafusa.'' New York:

Columbia University Press Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's la ...

.
OCLC 6042764

External links