Catalogue of the Japanese Coin Collection (pre-Meiji) at the British Museum (with special reference to Kutsuki Masatsuna)

Abstract

• The British Museum’s collection of Japanese coins is one of the best outside Japan. Many of the coins were originally in the collection of Japan’s renowned numismatist and collector, Kutsuki Masatsuna (1750–1802), and were acquired by the British Museum in the 1880s. At the same time as Kutsuki Masatsuna was building up his collection in the 18th century, European scholars were also visiting Japan, and paying particular attention to coins as they sought to gain knowledge and understanding. This is the first catalogue of the British Museum’s collection of Japanese coins. Details of each coin are given in Japanese and English, along with colour illustrations. Since publication in 2010, an additional bibliography of Japanese numismatics has been compiled by Edward Welch and Helen Wang, and revised by Yoshiko Yasumura (2014). Inspired by the Catalogue of the Japanese Coin Collection (pre-Meiji) at the British Museum (2010) and based on the Bibliographic Sources on p. vi of this publication, this bibliography includes all titles listed in the Bibliographic Sources, plus a few more recent titles.