JAPAN
tacle. The silver coins of the fifth century and the solitary gold coins of the eighth were cast in the same mould as the copper cash, and do not seem to have had any extensive circulation. But in the last quarter of the sixteenth century a wholly new departure was made under the auspices of the Taikō, that great captain, administrator, politician, statesman, and art patron, whose influence for progress was felt in almost every region of Japan's national existence. At the mint founded by him and placed under the direction of the Goto family, who rank in Japan as the greatest workers in metal she ever possessed, a coin was struck magnificent in dimensions and entirely original in design. The easiest way to conceive it is to suppose sixteen guineas beaten into an oval plate, its surface hammered in "wave pattern" and having the superscription "ten riyo" boldly written in black ink. It was certainly a very remarkable transition from a little copper token not an inch in diameter and worth only a fraction of a farthing, to a slab of gold,[1] as large as the whole of a man's open hand and worth sixteen guineas. Other gold coins were also struck—a five-riyo piece, a one-riyo piece and a half-ryo piece,—and there were also silver coins, somewhat similar in shape and design though of smaller dimensions. But it is unnecessary to particularise further. The interesting point is the sudden introduction of this system by order of
- ↑ See Appendix, note 41.
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