1 Shu -嘉永 Kaei Silver Coin XF 1853-65, Rectangular Shape, Japan.
1 Shu -嘉永 Kaei Silver Coin XF 1853-65, Rectangular Shape, Japan.
Tokugawa Coinage was a unitary and independent metallic monetary system established By Shōgun Tokugawa Leyasu in 1601 in Japan, and which lasted throughout The Tokugawa Period until its end in 1867.
The Shōgun was the military dictator of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shōguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamakura period shōguns were themselves figureheads. The office of shōgun was in practice hereditary, though over the course of the history of Japan several different clans held the position. Shōgun is the short form of Sei-i Taishōgun, a high military title from the Heian period. When Minamoto no Yoritomo gained political ascendency over Japan in 1185, the title was revived to regularize his position, making him the first shōgun in the usually understood sense.
Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first shōgun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which effectively ruled Japan from the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Ieyasu seized power in 1600, received the appointment as shōgun in 1603, and abdicated from office in 1605, but remained in power until his death in 1616. His given name is sometimes spelt Iyeyasu, according to the historical pronunciation of the kana character he. Ieyasu was posthumously enshrined at Nikkō Tōshō-gū with the name Tōshō Daigongen (東照大権現). He was one of the three unifiers of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
