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| ryō | |
|---|---|
| Name | ryō |
| Country | Japan |
| Value | variable |
| Mass | variable |
| Diameter | variable |
| Composition | gold, gold-silver alloys |
| Years of minting | c. 8th century–19th century |
ryō The ryō was a premodern Japanese monetary unit and gold currency used from the Nara period through the Edo period, instrumental in fiscal, commercial, and legal transactions across domains. It functioned within networks linking court officials, daimyō, merchants, and temples, shaping policies under figures like Tokugawa Ieyasu, legal codes such as the Taihō Code, and economic conditions affected by treaties like the Treaty of Kanagawa. The unit intersected with institutions including the Bakufu, Kantō kubo, and trading partners such as Dutch East India Company, Song dynasty, and Ming dynasty merchants.
The term derives from Sino-Japanese reading of Chinese monetary characters used in Tang-era sources associated with eras like the Nara period and Heian period, and was standardized in documents involving the Ritsuryō system, the Engishiki, and records produced by provincial governors and shōgun administrations. Contemporary chronicles such as the Nihon Shoki and compilations by aristocrats in the milieu of the Fujiwara clan used related monetary vocabulary alongside measurement units encountered in missions to Tang dynasty China and contacts with Goryeo. Legal texts under the Tokugawa shogunate codified exchange rates linking ryō to commodity prices recorded by Edo bakufu officials and rice magistrates.
Gold and gold-alloy coinage entered Japanese circulation via trade and tribute involving the Tang dynasty, Song dynasty, Goryeo, and later European actors like the Portuguese Empire and Spanish Empire, prompting adoption and adaptation by provincial authorities and central administrations. The early medieval economy registered ryō-equivalent weights in estate accounts of the Heian aristocracy and temple complexes such as Enryaku-ji and Kōfuku-ji, while wartime exigencies during conflicts like the Onin War and policies of rulers including Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu led to reforms in coinage, weighing, and minting. Edo-period monetary consolidation under bakufu ministers and Matsudaira Sadanobu-era economic interventions linked ryō accounting to stipends of samurai and taxation in rice quotas monitored by domainal magistrates.
Coins associated with the ryō standard included gold koban and oban issued by the Tokugawa shogunate and provincial mints, with inscriptions and weights regulated in edicts from bakufu offices like the Kanjō-bugyō and recorded by surveyors in domain offices. Denominations such as the koban, ichibuban, and oban circulated alongside silver monme accounts used by merchants in Osaka, Nagoya, and Edo, with specific issues named for mintmasters and official seals tied to houses like the Hashimoto family and commerce in licensed merchant guilds such as the za. Official weight standards referenced in treatises by economists associated with the Edo period hospitals and schools appeared in ledgers kept by prominent merchant families like the Hasegawa family.
Ryō-denominated coinage underpinned payments of stipends to retainers of daimyō such as Hosokawa clan and fiscal transfers enforced by agents of the Tokugawa shogunate, while also enabling transactions in markets of Nihonbashi, port exchanges in Nagasaki, and long-distance trade with the Dutch East India Company and Ryukyu Kingdom. Commercial records from wholesalers in Osaka and guild registries of the Edo period show ryō used in large-value contracts, dowries arranged by samurai households, and temple endowments maintained by clergy from Tōdai-ji. Price fluctuations recorded in merchant diaries coincided with hoards seized during incidents involving actors like the Shimabara Rebellion and administrative responses by bakufu commissioners.
Regional administrations such as the Satsuma Domain, Kaga Domain, and Sendai Domain sometimes issued domain coinage and set conversion rates differing from bakufu standards, creating regional variants in ryō valuation that provincial accountants reconciled in correspondences with the Osaka magistrate and central offices. Temporal shifts occurred from Tang-influenced weights in the Nara period through Heian-era bookkeeping practices, the tumult of the Sengoku period, and Edo stabilization under policies implemented during the reigns of shōgunates like those of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi and Tokugawa Ienobu, with episodes such as the Kan'ei Tsūhō reforms altering metallic content and nominal value.
Counterfeiting incidents involving imitation koban and clipped oban prompted enforcement by bakufu judicial bodies, commissions led by officials from offices like the Mito Domain and punitive measures publicized by proclamations issued from Edo Castle. Reformers including economists associated with the Kokugaku movement and bakufu advisors recommended reminting and alloy adjustments after crises paralleling global bullion flows following contact with European traders such as the Portuguese Empire and disruptions tied to piracy linked to the Wokou. Major monetary reforms—undertaken by figures like Tanuma Okitsugu and later bakufu reformers—adjusted standards and attempted to curb forgery through new dies, stricter penalties, and centralized minting at authorized facilities.
Ryō-denominated objects appear frequently in ukiyo-e prints by artists influenced by scenes in Edo markets and kabuki theater posters celebrating actors from families like the Ichikawa family, and they figure in literature from authors associated with the Edo period and earlier chronicles kept by court literati of the Heian period. Visual motifs of koban and oban recur in ceremonies recorded at temples such as Senso-ji and in gift lists for daimyo processions described in travel memoirs by travelers using routes like the Tōkaidō. Collecting and cataloguing ryō-related artifacts became a concern for antiquarians associated with institutions resembling the later museums of Meiji period scholars who undertook preservation and study of material culture.
Category:Coins of Japan