A wooden tablet marked with the date of 730 A.D. has been discovered at what is thought to have been a major foundry for Japan's first currency, giving strong supporting evidence that the foundry was active at that time, the local board of education has announced.
Production of Japan's earliest currency, called "wadokaichin," has previously been estimated as falling over the years from about 708 A.D. to 760 A.D. Historians are viewing the discovery of the tablet as important because it lends hard evidence for the time of wadokaichin production.
The tablet was unearthed during May and June, along with a fragment of a wadokaichin coin, thousands of fragments of casting molds, and fragments of tools used in making currency. Around 300 wooden tablets were found, but one tablet was marked with the date "May 4, year 2 of Tenpyo", as well as part of the name of an official, reading "... beno Kurumamaro." The Shimonoseki Municipal Board of Education said the tablet supports that the "Nagato" foundry, where the tablet was found, was actively coining wadokaichin currency in 730 A.D.
Previous estimations on the period of wadokaichin currency production have been based on only a few historical documents, such as the Heian-period document "Shokunihongi," and have lacked strong supporting evidence. With the discovery of the tablet, the board of education said, "At the very least, wadokaichin currency was being produced in this area in 730 A.D.," and said they would proceed with further analyses of historical resources.
Towao Sakaehara, professor emeritus at Osaka City University and an expert on studying ancient economics based on the flow of goods and currency, said, "The studies of wadokaichin are mostly based on the 'Shokunihongi' and the 'Harima no Kuni no Guntocho' (another historical document), but this wooden tablet is a discovery just as important as those documents."
Source: The Mainichi Daily News [August 11, 2010]
