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1 Bu Minbushō-satsu
| Issuer | Minbushō (Ministry of Popular Affairs) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1869-1870 |
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| Currency | Ryō (1595-1874) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 金壹分 檢 信 民部省 通商司 (Translation: Gold one Bu Inspect Trust Ministry of Popular Affairs Commerce Office) |
| Reverse description | Black letterpress print with red overstamps. Vertical inscriptions are contained within a frame composed of flying Hōō phoenixes over iridescent clouds, with a dragon-horse facing left on the ground amid paulownia leaves. A red oval stamped seal is applied at the conclusion of the inscriptions. |
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| Comments |
The Minbushō-satsu were among the first government-issued paper notes of the Meiji period, produced under the short-lived Ministry of Popular Affairs before it was absorbed into the Ōkurashō (Finance Ministry) in 1870. That administrative merger effectively ended the series, which gives these notes an unusually narrow issuance window of under two years.
The extreme elongation of the format follows a deliberate borrowing from traditional Japanese printed formats — hansatsu domain notes had conditioned the public to vertical, narrow paper currency for generations. Meiji reformers were modernizing the currency system but not yet willing to break entirely from familiar physical conventions.