Catalog
100 Mon
| Issuer | Morioka Domain Currency Exchange Office |
|---|---|
| Year | 1835 |
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| Currency | Mon (683-1953) |
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| Obverse description | Black letterpress print on a narrow vertical format, with a diagonal red overstamp seal in Chinese seal script at centre. The upper register carries a vignette of the deity Ebisu seated in three-quarter view, holding a fishing rod in his right hand and cradling a fish in his left arm, surrounded by the Takarazukushi auspicious objects — Kakuregasa, Kakuremino, Tsutsumori, Uchide-no-kozuchi, Hōju, and Shippō — arranged clockwise around him. The central field is divided into denomination and market-price text cartouches, while the lower register presents a turtle in left profile carrying a Cintāmaṇi gem, set against a stylised wave ground. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | 六 天 通 寳 年 保 *會 ** 印* *錢 引 替 會 所 木思山房復刻 (Translation: Tenpō 6th year Currency Exchange office) |
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| Comments |
Morioka Domain, under the Nambu clan, operated its own currency exchange office as part of the broader sankin-kōtai economy that kept regional lords in perpetual fiscal tension — the alternating residence requirement between domain and Edo drained cash reserves and pushed many domains toward issuing their own paper instruments, known as hansatsu. Morioka was among the more active issuers in the Tōhoku region.
The 100 mon denomination places this squarely in everyday transactional use rather than large-scale domain finance. Redemption guarantees on hansatsu were only as good as the issuing domain's solvency, and Nambu finances were chronically strained through the late Edo period.