1 Monme Silver - Aldea de Shindō

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.