Coins and commerce in classical Japan11 Matsumura Keiji, “Mumon ginsen to Wadō ginsen: Asuka- Fujiwara chiiki shutsudo ginsen o chūshin
ni”; Mikami Yoshitaka, Nihon kodai no kahei to shakai, 8–24; Mikami Ryūzō, Kahei no tanjō: kōchōsen no
hakubutsushi; Imamura Keiji, Fuhonsen to nazo no ginsen: kahei tanjō no shinsō; Egusa Noritomo, “Kodai
Nihon ni okeru gin to ginsen: Wadō kaichin no zengo.”
12 Tōno Haruyuki, Kahei no Nihonshi.
13 For example, excavations in Shiga prefecture from the site of the former Sōfukuji temple, constructed
in the latter half of the seventh century, have yielded mumon ginsen thought to have been used as intern-
ment materials. Similarly, silver ore serving the same purpose has been found at Kōfukuji, located on its
present site since the early eighth century.
14 Iyanaga Teizō, Nihon kodai shakai keizaishi kenkyū, 388–426.
15 Mikami Yoshitaka, Nihon kodai, 72–101.
16 Musashi province corresponds to present- day Tokyo, and parts of Saitama and Kanagawa prefectures.
17 Shoku Nihongi, 708. The copper was presented on 1/11, the Office of the Mint established on 2/11, and
the minting of silver and copper coins on 5/11 and 8/10, respectively.
18 Sakaehara, Nihon kodai senka ryūtsūshi no kenkyū, Ch. 1 (3–44).
19 Tōno, Kahei.
20 Sakaehara, Nihon kodai senka ryūtsūshi no kenkyū.
21 Shoku Nihongi, 711 5/15 for the exchange with rice and 712 12/7 for the exchange with cloth. Mori
Akihiko maintains that the only official exchange established at the time of the Wadō kaichin was that ten
copper coins were equal to one silver coin, which was in turn equal to one bu (0.375g) of unminted
silver. See Mori, “Narachō shoki ni okeru Wadō kaichin no seikaku.” A shō was a unit of volume origi-
nating in China, and its value increased over time, from about 0.2 liters to the approximately 1.8-liter
measurement established by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the sixteenth century which still holds today. This
complicates attempts to represent its value at any given time prior to that, but in the eighth century, a
shō appears to have corresponded to between 0.7 and 1.0 liters. A single kida of cloth measured just
under four meters in length. The counter for individual coins was mon, with a string of 1,000 mon con-
stituting one kan.
22 Shoku Nihongi, 711 (Wadō 4) 10/23.
23 See Kanazawa Etsuo, “Hachi, kyū seiki ni okeru senka no ryūtsū: Tokuni kigai o chūshin toshite” and
Yamamoto Takashi, “Hachi seiki ni okeru chihō no senka no sonzai keitai.”
24 Shoku Nihongi, 712 (Wadō 5) 10/29.
25 Nihon ryōiki, 247–251.
26 Shiraishi Hiroko, “ ‘Ryōiki’ kara mita enkyori kōeki” and Mikami Yoshitaka, Nihon kodai, 181–202.
27 Nihon ryōiki, 251.
28 For a discussion of the former, see Kuroda Yōko, “Hachi seiki ni okeru senka kinōron.” For the latter,
see Yoshikawa Toshiko, Moji to kodai Nihon 3: Ryūtsū to moji, and Mikami Yoshitaka, Nihon kodai.
29 Shoku Nihongi, 760 3/16.
30 Shoku Nihongi, 758 8/25.
31 For more on Nakamaro’s interest in Tang culture, see Kishi Toshio, Fujiwara no Nakamaro.
32 For information on the An Lushan Rebellion, see Edwin G. Pulleyblank, The Background of the Rebellion
of An Lu- shan; Pulleyblank, “The An Lu- Shan Rebellion and the Origins of Chronic Militarism in Late
T’ang China”; or Michael T. Dalby, “Court Politics in Late T’ang Times.”
33 Kita Shinroku, “Narachō ni okeru senka no kachi to ryūtsū ni tsuite.”
34 Egusa Noritomo, “Fujiwara no Nakamaro seikenka no senka hakkō to Shiragi seitō keikaku.”
35 Teranishi Sadahiro, “Jingū-kaihō ryūtsū shiron: shakai, seijiteki ichikōsatsu.”
36 The events of the Fujiwara no Nakamaro Rebellion are discussed in William Wayne Farris, Heavenly
Warriors: The Evolution of Japan’s Military, 500–1300, 69–77.
37 The full list consisted of: Ryūhei eihō (796), Fūsū shinhō (818), Shōwa shōhō (835), Chōnen taihō (848), Jōeki
shinhō (859), Jōgan eihō (870), Kanpyō taihō (890), Engi tsūhō (907), and Kengen taihō (958).
38 Kitō Kiyoaki, “Heian shoki no senka ni tsuite.”
39 Nihon sandai jitsuroku, 870 11/8. Bitchū and Bizen correspond to present- day Okayama prefecture, while
Yamashiro formed the southern part of Kyoto prefecture.
40 Nihon sandai jisturoku, 925 9/25.
41 Hotate Michihisa, “Chūsei zenki no shinsei to kokahō,” and Sakaehara, Nihon kodai senka kenkyū,
146–178.
42 Kanazawa Etsuo, “Nihon kodai ni okeru senka no tokushitsu.”
43 Nihon kirayku 987 11/2.