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Created page with " Brass alloy was widely used in Japan for a variety of purposes. Alongside more common purposes, it was also used in the form of brass dust as an element for decorating [[lacq..."
Brass alloy was widely used in Japan for a variety of purposes. Alongside more common purposes, it was also used in the form of brass dust as an element for decorating [[lacquerware]]s and ''[[ukiyo-e]]'' woodblock prints; brass hairpins were commonly worn by commoners in the [[Ryukyu Kingdom|Ryûkyû Kingdom]] (in contrast to the gold and silver hairpins worn by the Ryukyuan aristocracy).
The [[Tokugawa shogunate]] created a short-lived ''[[za]]'' guild in [[1780]] which would exercise a monopoly on the sale and distribution of brass. An [[iron]] guild was created at the same time. The brass guild (''shinchûza'') was attached to the headquarters of the ''ginza'' (silver guild) in [[Edo]], and had offices in [[Osaka]] where all the brass produced in the archipelago would be collected, and then resold. New brass refineries were established in Osaka, [[Fushimi]], and [[Sakai]], where they had previously only existed in [[Kyoto]]. Like the iron guild, the brass guild was abolished in [[1787]], however, as [[Matsudaira Sadanobu]] took steps to reverse the commercially-minded policies of his predecessor, [[Tanuma Okitsugu]].<ref>[[John Whitney Hall]], ''Tanuma Okitsugu (1719-1788): Forerunner of Modern Japan'', Harvard University Press (1955), 77.</ref>
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==References==
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[[Category:Economics]]