Mikami Y., with J. Batts
present, counterfeit coins are numerous, and account for half the money in circulation,” and
the new coinages were announced so as to curtail the spread of counterfeiting.^29
The will of Fujiwara Nakamaro (706–764), the period’s most powerful figure, was at work in
the minting of new coins at this time. Nakamaro received the name Emi Oshikatsu in 758, and
the emperor granted him special privileges, such as the right to issue coinage, the right to loan
rice plants, and the right to use his own seal.^30 Nakamaro’s acquisition of the right to mint coins,
traditionally held to be part of the emperor’s supreme authority, set the stage for the issuance of
the three types of coinage discussed above. The coins suggest as well the admiration Nakamaro
had for the products of Tang culture, as the group of characters printed on the three new coins
(㛤ᇶᐆ for gold, ኴᖹඖᐆ for silver, and ᖺ28日ᐆ for copper) each borrow one character
from the Tang dynasty’s Kaiyuan tongbao (㛤ඖ28日ᑌ) coinage.^31
Incidentally, in the seventh month of 758 the Tang had struck the Ganyuan chongbao (Jap.
Kengen jūhō), set at ten times the value of the Kaiyuan tongbao, and the Chongshu ganyuan (Jap. Jūyu
kengen), at fifty times the value, to offset the financial difficulties resulting from the An Lushan
Rebellion.^32 Nakamaro seems to have imitated this precedent, and implemented his own policy
of currency reform in the Japanese archipelago.^33 It is likely that word of the new Tang coinages
would have been brought to Nakamaro’s attention together with information on the An Lushan
Rebellion. Furthermore, from 759, the Fujiwara hegemon’s plans for the conquest of the Korean
kingdom of Silla were proceeding apace, and it is possible that efforts to cover the enormous
military expenses of this state enterprise (later aborted) factored into the production of new coin-
ages.^34 Either way, Nakamaro’s currency reform was deeply intertwined with the shifting state
of affairs in East Asia.
The Mannen tsūhō copper currency was abolished at the time of Nakamaro’s political fall, and
in 765 the Jingū kaihō was struck in its place.^35 The resolution of the Fujiwara no Nakamaro
Rebellion in 764 and the changing of the era name to Tenpyō-Jingo were both closely connected
to the issuance of this new coinage.^36 Nevertheless, among Nakamaro’s monetary policies, the
practice of setting the value of newly issued copper coins at ten times the value of the previous
coinage was followed from the Heian period onward. In this sense, Nakamaro’s initiatives can be
said to have laid the foundation for coinage policy during the era that followed.
Coinage in the Heian period
Beginning with the Ryūhei eibō in 796, and concluding with the Kengen taihō of 958, the court
struck nine different copper currencies in total during the Heian period.^37 It is likely that up
through the Jōgan eihō coins issued in 870, each successive minting was carried out with the same
intent as those in the Nara period, as a means of funding construction projects in the capital.
From the 890 Kanpyō taihō onward, however, the connection to large- scale construction works
cannot be confirmed in the historical sources, and it is thought the heretofore close relationship
between coins and construction dissipated over time.^38
Multiple historical sources support the notion that the Jōgan eihō coins were issued during a
transitional period in Heian- era coinage policy. For one, the state laid out a new infrastructure for
the minting of coins. It required for the first time offerings of copper from Bitchū and Bizen, and
established a new mint at Kadono in Yamashiro province, designating the area as a production
center for coins.^39 Meanwhile, the state became proactive in the recovery of older coins as a means
of securing the raw copper needed for further coinages. In 867, the government ruled that the coins
remaining in the provinces should be collected and supplied to the capital, whereupon the provinces
would be compensated with the equivalent value in rice. Additionally, in 872, after the Jōgan eihō
was minted, the government issued an edict stating that “Regarding the newly- minted Jōgan eihō,