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1 Mon 'Kayūtsūhō' Regular Script
| Issuer | Nagasaki, City of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1668-1685 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Cast |
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| Obverse description | Four Chinese characters in regular script (kaishu) arranged in the traditional reading order around a central square hole: 嘉 (top), 通 (right), 祐 (bottom), 寶 (left), together reading 嘉祐通寶 — 'Currency of Jiayou'. The characters are rendered in bold, well-defined strokes cast in relief against a flat field. A raised inner rim borders the square perforation, and a raised outer rim encircles the coin. The surface displays typical green and brown patination consistent with aged cast copper. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | 嘉 寶 通 祐 (Translation: Currency of Jiayou) |
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| Additional information |
Cast in Nagasaki under shogunate license, these coins were produced to address a chronic shortage of small-denomination copper currency in the city's active trading port. The Kayūtsūhō series takes its name from the Chinese characters used in their casting — a deliberate nod to the Sino-Japanese commercial networks that made Nagasaki, as Japan's sole sanctioned foreign trade port under the sakoku edicts, the country's most monetarily complex city.
The regular script variant is distinguished from the cursive Gyōsho type by stroke form alone — a distinction that occupied Japanese numismatists considerably more than it did the merchants spending them.