Scrip of Edo period Japan

Originally used only as a representation of amounts of rice (subdivisions of koku) owned by the scrip-holder and held in the Osaka or Edo merchants' storehouse, these scrips quickly came to be used as currency.

Japan's first banknotes, called Yamada Hagaki (山田羽書), were issued around 1600 by Shinto priests also working as merchants in the Ise-Yamada (modern Mie Prefecture), in exchange for silver.

Following the condemnation and death of the daimyō Asano Naganori, for example, Ōishi Yoshio, a house elder in the Akō Domain (and later the leader of the Forty-seven rōnin), ordered the redemption of scrip at 60% of face value.

Early in the period, domains printed their own scrip; later, they operated through prominent merchants, whose credibility was important to the acceptance of the currency.

For example, paper issued by the Kishū domain in 1866 was also used in Yamato, Izumi, Kawachi, Settsu, and Harima Provinces.

In the interim, some scrip carried markings from the central government indicating the value in yen and the smaller sen and rin.