1 Ryō Dajōkan-satsu

The Dajōkan-satsu were the Meiji government's first paper currency, issued within months of the 1868 restoration to finance military campaigns against Tokugawa holdouts — most immediately the Boshin War. The new administration had virtually no reserve capital and no established central bank, so these notes were backed by little more than political will and the promise of future tax revenues denominated in rice.

Public acceptance was poor. Decades of Tokugawa-era han notes had left merchants deeply skeptical of government paper, and the Dajōkan-satsu traded at a steep discount against gold and silver coin almost immediately after issue. The government's attempt to mandate par acceptance by decree did little to help.

JNDA#10-4 falls within a series that ran across multiple denominations, all produced using traditional Japanese woodblock techniques rather than Western intaglio printing — a deliberate choice that would be abandoned within a few years as Meiji currency modernization accelerated toward the 1872 establishment of the national banking system.