2 Bu Minbushō-satsu

The Minbushō-satsu series was among the first paper currency issued under the new Meiji government, produced in the chaotic interval before Japan had established a coherent central banking structure. The Ministry of Popular Affairs — itself a short-lived administrative body, abolished and reorganized within years of issuing these notes — was an unlikely monetary authority, and the assignment of currency issuance to it reflects how improvised early Meiji fiscal policy actually was.

The 2 Bu denomination sits in an awkward transitional moment: the old ryō-bu-shu coinage system was still nominally in force, but the government was already moving toward the decimal yen, which would be formally adopted in 1871. Notes like this one became obsolete almost immediately after issue.