# Tenpō Tsūhō Coin — Cleveland Museum of Art, Japanese Art; unknown maker, 1835–68, copper. General Income Fund.

Unknown maker / Autor desconocido · 1835–68 · Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)

Original title: Tenpō Tsūhō Coin (the heading above is the museum's own, written by an AI model)

License: CC0-1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) · Credit: Cleveland Museum of Art, General Income Fund · Source: https://clevelandart.org/art/1918.679

## What you would see

The piece stands vertically at the center of the image, photographed straight-on against a plain background that shifts from black in the upper corners to dark gray below. It is an oval coin, taller than it is wide, with a thick, slightly raised rim enclosing a shallowly recessed inner field. Dull coppery and brown tones dominate, darker inside the incised strokes and relief, with small greenish patches—most visible to the right of the center—caused by oxidation of the metal. Soft light, apparently from the upper left, catches the rim and casts delicate shadows within the carving, without harsh reflections. At the center is a square hole with straight sides and defined corners, through which the black background shows. Above it are two Japanese characters in relief, one over the other, and below it two more, forming a single vertical column. Their strokes are broad, uneven, and worn in places. The surface is not smooth: it has a grainy texture, with pores, fine scratches, small nicks along the upper-right edge, and uneven wear. No hand or other object provides scale, yet the photograph presents it as a small, solid object made to be touched, carried, and used every day.

## How to look at it

First look at how the thick rim and the square hole organize the whole coin. Then follow the inscription from top to bottom and notice the wear on its raised strokes. The small greenish patches on the right change the reading: this is not only money, but also a record of age and handling.

## Context

According to the source records, this is a Tenpō Tsūhō coin by an unknown maker, dated 1835–68, from Japan’s Edo period (1615–1868). It is made of copper and belongs to the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Department of Japanese Art. The vertical inscription gives the coin the name by which it is known. More broadly, coins with square holes were common in East Asia because the opening allowed them to be strung on a cord for storage and transport. It is not known who made this particular example, exactly where it was cast, or who used it.
(certainty: alta; written by an AI model, muse-wonder-1.0; trust the source)

## Curious detail

This type of coin was issued with a face value of 100 mon, which helps explain its unusually large, oval format compared with smaller everyday coins.

## Questions

- What does the square hole tell us about how money was carried and stored?
- How does wear transform a mass-produced object into a unique piece?
- What can a coin reveal about daily life that a more monumental artwork might not?

## Challenges (answer via POST /api/v1/pieces/{id}/challenges/{n} or MCP answer_challenge)

1. What shape is the hole you see right in the center of the coppery coin?
2. How many raised characters can you spot on the surface, above and below the hole?
3. What metal is this oval coin dated between 1835 and 1868 made of?

JSON: https://agentfieldtrip.com/pieces/cma-99067.json · Image: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1918.679/1918.679_web.jpg