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1 Monme Silver - Aldea de Shindō
| Issuer | Kōfuku-in Temple (興福院), Shindō Village (新堂村), Tōichi District |
|---|---|
| Year | 1866-3729 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Monme |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Woodblock-printed note on handmade washi paper in a narrow vertical format. At the top, a vignette of baled rice bales accompanied by ornamental prosperity motifs serves as an allusion to the commodity backing the note; below it, a large labyrinthine tensho-style security seal encloses the name of the issuing temple, Kōfuku-in (興福院), alongside the denomination inscription 一銀壹匁 (1 Monme Silver). The right column bears the exchange pledge 米手形一預 and the left column the circulation authorisation 丙寅改出入 (inspected for the Year of the Fire Tiger); at the foot, the issuing office is identified as 米札會所 興福院殿, with a red tensho circular seal above and a black circular seal reading 新堂 below. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
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| Reverse lettering | 預り 此札引換地所 他所江往来不可 十市郡新堂村 庄屋 年寄 總百姓 |
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| Comments |
Kōfuku-in was a Shingon Buddhist temple in Shindō village, Yamato Province, and like dozens of similar rural institutions in late Edo Japan, it issued scrip denominated in silver monme to address chronic local coin shortages. These temple-issued notes — a subset of the broader *hansatsu* and *murakata satsu* tradition — carried the issuing institution's credibility as their only real backing. A Buddhist temple was, in this context, considered more trustworthy than many merchant houses.
The washi substrate is handmade and locally sourced, almost certainly. Condition vulnerability is inherent to the material — edges fray, and the ink from hand-applied seals tends to bleed into the soft fibres over time.