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5 Ryō 'Doshū Kinsatsu'

Issuer Tosa Domain (Kōchi Han)
Year 1868
Type Local banknote
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Obverse description Printed in black letterpress on paper in vertical format, the upper central field carries the denomination inscription in Chinese regular script (kaisho) within a rectangular border frame. The lower portion is occupied by a vignette of a whale swimming leftward, its spout arching to the right — a regionally distinctive motif emblematic of Tosa's Pacific coastal identity.
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Reverse lettering 高知藩
會計司
(Translation: Kōchi Domain Accounting Office)
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Comments

Tosa Domain was among the more financially aggressive of the late Tokugawa han, issuing domain notes — hansatsu — to manage chronic silver shortages and fund the costly loyalist activities that would help topple the shogunate. This note was issued in 1868, the year the Meiji Restoration was declared, meaning it circulated at the precise moment the political authority backing it was being dissolved into a new national order.

The Doshū Kinsatsu series denominated in ryō persisted only briefly before the new Meiji government moved to suppress domain currencies and unify the monetary system under centralized control, rendering these notes obsolete within a few years of issue.

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