Coins and commerce in classical Japanas their characters are unclear and their manufacture coarse, reprimand the Office of the Mint, and
make them properly.”^40 The order shows the proactive attitude the government held toward circu-
lation of the Jōgan eihō, a coinage that was the product of an ambition not seen before or after.
Although there had been an inseparable link between the construction of the capital city of
Heian- kyō and the issuance of coinage, construction settled down from the middle of the ninth
century, and the role coins played in the regular consumer activity of the capital grew in import-
ance. The range of circulation gradually constricted, and ultimately became limited to Heian-
kyō itself and the surrounding area. Among residents of the capital, the use of coins spread to the
lower classes as compensation for labor or as economic aid to those in great poverty.^41 Neverthe-
less, the inflation of commodity prices meant that purchasing goods with coins was not neces-
sarily simple. The classical state’s issuance of coinage, in much the same manner as the change in
era names, was enacted alongside the succession of a new emperor, and this ceremonial hue of
coin production deepened over time.^42
Over the generations, the quality of the coinage fell considerably as well: the circumference
became smaller and the metal content changed, with the amount of copper decreasing and that of
lead increasing. As a result, commoners increasingly avoided coins. An entry from the Nihon
kiryaku dated to the eleventh month of 987 depicts the widespread shirking of coinage at the
time, variously describing a crackdown by the Office of Imperial Police (Kebiishi- chō) in the capital
against those refusing coins, and monks of the temples around Heian- kyō praying that the people
make use of them.^43 This growing popular aversion, together with the weakening of the ritsuryō
state’s interest in minting and diminishing copper yields, led the government to halt further issu-
ance of coinages in the latter half of the tenth century.
The use of coins was not completely abandoned, however, as they were still circulating inside
Heian- kyō in the latter decades of the tenth century and beyond. Documents from 966, for
example, contain descriptions suggesting the regular use of coinage.^44 Furthermore, the Utsubo
monogatari, thought to date from around the close of the tenth century, includes scenes depicting
the values for gifts and bets in games of go displayed in terms of coins, and it is thought likely that
coins served as a standard for the display of values in Heian- kyō until the beginning of the elev-
enth century.^45 The move away from coins was in large part a result of the degradation in their
quality, but memory of the utility of coins themselves remained. Thereafter, the use of coinage
in the archipelago ceased, and silk and rice took on the function coins had performed in the
capital area. From the middle of the twelfth century, coins once again came to circulate in the
islands, this time through the influx of high- quality coins arriving from China.^46
Conclusion
This chapter has principally discussed the coinages issued by the classical state, but the issues of
where coins were used and who handled them are also important points worth considering.
As for the places coins circulated, aside from the markets established within the capital’s walls,
trade bases such as ports and markets developed in various locations. It was once hypothesized
that markets were established in provincial capitals, and scholars advanced the concept of provin-
cial trade spheres with these markets at the center of their development.^47 In recent years,
however, a number of criticisms have been put forth, highlighting the need for renewed exami-
nation into how regional spheres of economic circulation developed in the classical period.^48
Concerning the agents of circulation, Nara- era records confirm the existence of people
engaged in long- distance trade (referred to as “shōryo”), and long- distance traders also appear
frequently in the early- Heian Nihon ryōiki, as discussed above.^49 Sometime later, Fujiwara Aki-
hira’s Shin sarugakuki, dating to the latter eleventh century, tells the story of Hachirō-mauto, a