5 Yen 'Kajiya'

Chiossone's involvement here is worth understanding clearly: the Italian engraver arrived in Japan in 1875 at the Meiji government's invitation, hired specifically to modernize the country's intaglio printing capabilities and train a domestic workforce. This note is among his earliest Bank of Japan work, and the engraving quality reflects a craftsman operating at full command of his skills rather than someone still establishing a new workshop.

The "Kajiya" nickname — blacksmith — derives from a figure in the design, a common way Japanese collectors and dealers distinguished notes in an era before standardized pick references. The Diplomorpha sikokiana fiber gave the paper a particular tactile resistance that counterfeiters found genuinely difficult to replicate with materials available in the 1870s and 1880s.