Government Note in the early Meiji Period
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| Revised Bill (Empress Jingu Note) (1883) |
[ scale /A4 ] |
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The revised bill issued to stop the counterfeiting of Meiji Tsuho. The first paper money to bear a portrait was also the only paper money with a female portrait in the history of Japanese paper currency. The Empress Jingu was a legendary person of whom no picture existed. This portrait was drawn from imagination by Edoardo Chiossone, an Italian sculptor who worked for the Paper Currency Bureau (now the Printing Bureau, Ministry of Finance), the figure thus resembled that of a western woman. Ever since, the shape of Japanese paper money has been oblong. |
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