Currency
A number of different modes of currency were used throughout Japanese history, including, in the pre-modern period, the heavy use of Chinese coins. By the Edo period, a relatively standardized system of gold and silver coinage was in place, though it experienced dramatic inflation and devaluation, among other financial crises, at times. Systems which served as precursors for a "modern" system of banks and paper currency, along with futures markets and other such economic/financial developments, emerged in the 18th-19th centuries, and beginning in the Meiji period, "modern" systems based on the Western model were established.
Edo Period
Samurai stipends in the Edo period were paid out in koku, i.e. in rice. However, gold and silver coinage was used in everyday exchanges (especially among chônin/commoners - peasants, merchants, artisans, etc.). In Edo, gold was more widely circulated, while in Kamigata (the Kyoto-Osaka area), silver was more commonly the mode of exchange. Gold was exchanged in relatively standardized coins issued by the shogunate, known as koban, and worth one ryô apiece.
A ryô was considered to be roughly equal to one koku, which in turn is said to have been roughly the amount of rice needed to feed a man for a year. However, rice and gold prices fluctuated dramatically over the course of the period, and the exact amount of rice that comprised a koku is, in any case, a subject of debate. Over the course of the Edo period, the cost of rice dropped dramatically relative to the value of gold, making samurai (who relied on stipends paid in koku) less and less wealthy than members of the merchant class who earned their incomes in gold and silver.[1]
The use of the gold koban, however, was most common in and around Edo, and the farther one traveled from Edo, the less standard it became. At the beginning of the Edo period, there were over one hundred types of gold coins in circulation,[2] and so in many parts of the country, particularly the active commercial centers of Kyoto and Osaka, and other areas at a considerable distance from Edo, currency continued to be valued by weight, and not by face value. While gold coins were particularly standard in Edo, in the rest of the country, silver and copper coins remained quite common, and were valued by their weight, in momme. One hundred momme were worth roughly one momme of silver, and one thousand momme was called one kanme.
Prices
Though prices varied widely, of course, over time, from place to place, and depending on the quality of the goods or other factors, the following figures might provide a rough idea of prices (i.e. the value of the ryô) in the "high" Edo period (18th to early 19th centuries).
- 2 or 3 momme - a cheap ukiyo-e print[3]
- 20 momme - an ukiyo-e print of good quality.[3]
- 32 momme - the cost of seeing a play at Ryôgoku in 1820.
- 75 momme - the cost of the journey from Osaka to Nagasaki by boat (roughly 14-20 days).[3]
- 90 momme - the cost of a multi-volume illustrated book, such as Soga Monogatari.[3]
- 1000 momme or 1/4 ryô - the cost of sending a child to terakoya (temple school) for a year
- 1 ryô - the cost for a man's formal kamishimo outfit, including hakama, haori, and kosode.
- 1 ryô - the cost of commissioning a scroll painting by a well-known painter; a screen painting by the same painter might cost roughly 6-10 ryô.
- 2-3 ryô - the cost of hiring a maid for a year (i.e. the income made by a maid in a year)
- 6 ryô - a typical annual wage for a laborer[3]
- 6 to 10 ryô - the fee to commission a major artist for a single set of lavish byôbu (folding screen) paintings; could be as much as even 40 ryô depending.[3]
- 10 ryô - the cost of a first visit to a Yoshiwara establishment, including tips for the nakai and taikomochi.[4]
- 200 ryô - A month in the Yoshiwara could cost as much as this.[3]
- 360 ryô - the cost of buying a small room (80 sq yards) in Edo.
- 483 ryô - The annual salary of a typical hatamoto in 1711.[5]
- 500 ryô - The cap on kabuki actors' salaries, imposed by the Kansei Reforms in 1794.[5]
- 800 ryô The salary of kabuki actor Ichikawa Danjūrō I (1660-1704) peaked at this amount.[5]
- 1000 ryô - Yoshizawa Ayame I (1663-1729) was the first kabuki actor to attain an annual salary of this amount.[5]
References
- Crawcour, E.S. and Kozo Yamamura. "The Tokugawa Monetary System, 1787-1868." Economic Development and Cultural Change 18:4, part 1 (1970). pp489-518.
- ↑ Screech, Timon. "Owning Edo-Period Paintings." in Lillehoj, Elizabeth (ed.) Acquisition: Art and Ownership in Edo-Period Japan. Floating World Editions, 2007. p34.
- ↑ Crawcour and Yamamura. p490.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Screech. p26.
- ↑ Segawa Seigle, Cecelia. Yoshiwara. University of Hawaii Press, 1993.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Leiter, Samuel. “Edo Kabuki: The Actor’s World.” Impressions 31 (2010). pp114-131.
