Yamada Hagaki details / full-scale-size
backfront⑪ If fake notes were found, how were theyjudged?
There are extant documents that tell us thatthe oﬃcial in charge of managing notes andthe investigator judged them by checking
them against various samples in a book ofproofs. They checked all of the stamps on thenotes. By collecting and checking fake notes,
they could get much information aboutcounterfeiters. So they took measures to stop
fake notes from circulating.

Yamada Hagaki was named after Ise Cityʼs former name, Yamada.

Yamada Hagaki exhibition room

⑫ What other notes were there in the Edo
period?
The Tsu, Wakayama, and Toba clans which
controlled territories in todayʼ s Mie Prefecture
made and used their own local notes using
Yamada notes as references.
⑬ Why were Yamada notes used
continuously for 250 years?
The most important factor in their long use is
the system that was in place for issuing notes.
The number of notes was limited and suﬃcient
hard currency was kept on hand to back them.
The oﬃcials who issued the notes also
cooperated with local Bakufu oﬃcials. This
helped to maintain the reliability of the notes.
Another reason for their long use was that theYamada area was politically and economicallystable for many years. Onshi and merchants ofYamada were seen as especially reliable.

YamadaHagaki
The first paper
money system
in Japan,called Yamadanotes『河崎まちなみ館 』山田羽書

展示室⑭ Samples of the stamps used on Yamada
notes.
These sample stamps were used to check thestamps on notes.
People who had the right to issue notes werecalled Hagaki makers. Each of their names wasprinted on a stamp along with the notice ofexchangeability. Each maker used his own
stamp.

The changes in the system of Yamada notes.

Early Period(Period 1)
1610?-1789

Yamada notes were issued byonshi and merchants under
the control of the Yamada
administration oﬃce, called
Yamada Sampo.

Late Period

Yamada notes were issued assemi-oﬃcial notes under thecontrol of the local Bakufu
magistrate, called Yamada
Bugyo.

Final Period

Yamada notes were issued asoﬃcial notes under thecontrol of Watarai Fu(prefecture) under the Meiji
government.

(Period 2)
1790-1867(Period 3)
1868-1875⑯ How many stamps were used in printing
Yamada notes?
Over 10 stamps were used on the face andback of the notes to prevent fake ones frombeing made easily.
⑰ Why were Yamada notes discontinued?
Even after the Meiji restoration, Yamada notes
were made in the same way and were issued
as Japanese government notes calledʻWataraifu notesʼ. Finally though, thegovernment ordered the oﬃcials to stop
printing and using Yamada notes in 1875.

Museum ofISE KAWASAKI
Merchants
Museum ofISE KAWASAKI
Merchants⑮ How did they get materials for making
Yamada notes?
They ordered special paper from Deguchi
Shinzaemon who was a paper maker in Mino
City in todayʼ s Gifu Prefecture. They devised
special tools for making the paper and sent
them to him. He sent the paper to Kawasaki onships, then Murata Yahei, a merchant, brought
it to the Yamada administration oﬃce.

Produced by Ise Kawasaki machizukurishu(Incorporated NPO)
32-25-2 Kawasaki, Ise City, Mie
Tel & Fax : 0596-22-4810
E-Mail: info@isekawasaki.jp
URL: http://www.isekawasaki.jp/●Hours
9:30~17:00 (the house museum)
10:00~17:00 (Shoningura)●ClosedTuesdays(or Wednesday when Tuesday is a Public Holiday)●Admission fee
Adults 300 yen
High school and college students 200 yen
Primary and middle school students 100 yen① Why did paper money ﬁrst appear in Yamada?
Yamada, Ise Cityʼ s former name, was awell-developed town from a very early point inJapanese history mostly because Ise Jingu waslocated there, making it a focal point of Japaneseculture.
Furthermore, after the Muromachi period, onshi*
came to have enough property to maintain credit
worthiness and they took part in theself-government of the Yamada area. Thesereasons led to the evolution of personal drafts andthen to the original paper money, Yamada notes(Yamada Hagaki). In the Edo period, there were
two diﬀerent systems of money in Japan. People
used silver in the west and gold in the east.
Yamada was at the crossroads of east and west
and many came to visit Ise Jingu so both gold andsilver were used there.
At that time, people would buy small things by
cutting silver bars into the appropriate sizes. In thebeginning of the 17th century, the Bakufu
government ordered people to stop doing that.
Paper money was produced to make up for thelack of small change. Thus, they improved upon
the system of the personal drafts and applied
it on a wide scale.

⑥⑤ Where did the name Yamada Hagaki comefrom?
There is no agreement among scholars
about this but the word Hagaki has been foundin a Japanese-Portuguese dictionary compiled
by Jesuits dated 1603. In this dictionary, Hagaki
were explained as documents or certiﬁcateswith signatures. The Japanese characters 羽書ﬁrst appeared printed on Izawa Hagaki issued
by the Tomiyama family in 1624.

⑫①

⑬

⑦

⑥ Who produced Yamada notes?
Yamada notes were produced by onshi andmerchants who lived in the area near theentrance to Ise Jingu (Geku).
Starting in 1790, three local oﬃcials from theYamada administration were appointed tomanage production of the notes.

These are samples of the main stamps on the back of Yamada notes.

⑧②*Onshi were people who served as innkeepers,
tour guides, and priests to people visiting Ise
Jingu from other areas.
② What was the historical meaning of issuing
Yamada notes?
1. Yamada notes were the ﬁrst paper money inJapan. They also kept their credibility continuously
until the beginning of the Meiji period.
2. Yamada notes were a kind of private money
which were issued by Onshi and merchants. But
they came to be used as oﬃcial money.
3. Yamada notes were the proto type of the local
money issued in all areas of Japan. So we can seethat Yamada notes have some historicalconnections with modern Japanese notes.
4. The Yamada notes which were issued at the endof the 18th century were signiﬁcant because there
were gold reserves to back the paper money. Thiswas unusual at that time.
③ Yamada notes are said to be the oldest inJapan. When did they ﬁrst appear?
They probably appeared in the beginning of theEdo period in the 17th century.
The oldest extant Yamada note, which is stored at
the Bank of Japan, was produced in 1610. We canconﬁrm through documents that Yamada notes
were in use in other parts of the Ise area in 1615.
④ How much value did Yamada notes have?
On the face of the Yamada notes, it stated that 64
ʻsilverʼ momme could be exchanged for one gold
ryo. So, one 1-momme note would have been
worth between 700 to 1,000 yen in todayʼs money.
However, since the prices of things changed
frequently and dramatically throughout the Edo
period, we really cannot make exact comparisons.

⑭

1 1848 Bishamonten
facing right

2 1854 Fukurokuju
facing left

3 1863 Ebisu
facing left

⑮
③

⑨⑯④
⑩⑰⑤⑪4 1868 Ebisu
facing left

⑦ What was the system for issuing Yamada
notes?
The system evolved over time from being
issued by private groups, then companies, andﬁnally the administration oﬃce.
The Yamada administration oﬃce changed allof the notes in 1709. After that, the notes werechanged every 7 years.
The notes were lent to the various towns in theYamada area. The interest gained from this wasused as part of the budget of the Yamada
administration oﬃce.
In 1697, there were 229 groups issuing thenotes and there were 824,400 notes valued at
687,000 momme in circulation.
⑧ How were the face values of the notes
decided?
The system for issuing Yamada notes wasreformed in 1740. The notes were denominatedin terms of their value in silver. After 1740, thesilver 1-momme* was white, the 5-bu was blue,
the 3-bu was red and the 2-bu was yellow. The
size of each note was the same.
On the face of the Yamada notes, it stated that64 ʻsilverʼ momme could be exchanged for one
gold ryo coin.
*One silver momme had a value of 3.75 gramsin silver. The 5-bu was half the weight of one
silver momme.
⑨ How old are Yamada notes compared toother paper money issued around the world?
It is said that Yamada notes were the second toappear. The ﬁrst paper money was produced
during the Song or Yuan dynasty in China.
Recently however, some scholars have begun
to reconsider this theory.
In Europe, it is said that the ﬁrst paper money
was produced in 1640 by the Bank of England
which was only oﬃcially established more than
50 years later in 1694.
⑩ How did oﬃcials prevent fake notes frombeing made?
They changed the stamps on the back of thenotes every 7 years to prevent counterfeitersfrom making stamps easily. In the 18th century
they began to order the stamps from a
professional stamp maker Kanaya Zensuke,
in Kyoto instead of Ise City. They also combined
several stamps and printed them over eachother to make the design more complicated.