大分県竹田市發現大量中國古錢幣

Last month the Yomiuri News on-line reported the following:

大分県竹田市教委は、市内の山中から、約１００キロの銅銭が見つかったと明らかにした。

　鎌倉時代から江戸初期にかけて中国から輸入された渡来銭で、唐時代の「開元通宝」や明時代の「永楽通宝」など数種類が交じっており、数万枚あるとみて、埋められた時期や当時の流通形態などを調べている。

　市教委文化財課によると、９月下旬、私有地で、木材などを運ぶための作業道を作るため、重機で斜面を削った際に出てきた。

　一部、穴をひもでつないだ銅銭もあったが、多くはバラバラで緑色にさびていた。また、銅銭が入っていたと見られる木おけの木片も見つかり、有力者が戦などの有事に備えて埋めていた可能性があるという。

　県教委埋蔵文化財センターによると、県内で１か所で見つかった銅銭としては最大量という。市教委は１枚ずつ洗浄、種類ごとに分類し、調査している。

　下関市立大の桜木晋一教授（貨幣考古学）によると、１か所で見つかった銅銭の量では、九州では１９１９年に福岡県久山町で見つかった約９万４０００枚が最多。６０年頃に同県や宮崎県で約４万枚が発見されて以降は万単位での出土はなく、約５０年ぶりの大量出土という。桜木教授は「当時の経済活動や技術水準、信仰がうかがえる貴重な史料」と話している。（阿南沙弥香）

（2012年11月23日22時53分 読売新聞）

(試譯文)

The Board of Education of Taketa city, Oita clarified the around 100 thousand copper coins that had been found from a hill in the city.

Regarding these imported overseas money, they were from China between the Kamakura period and the early period of Edo. There were several kinds, such as the "Kaiyuan Tongbao" of the Tang period and the "Yongle Tongbao" of the Ming period and were mixed together, and it was concluded that there were tens of thousands pieces. Their bury time and their circulation in those days etc. were being investigated

According the Cultural-Assets Division of the City’s Board of Education, in order to make the strip road for transporting wood etc. in a private land in late September a slope was cut with some heavy industrial machines, and they came out.

Although some copper coins were partly connected to the hole with a string, many came out scattering around and they were rusty green. Moreover, pieces of wood of a wood bucket which contained these copper coins were also found, and it was said that some influential people might have buried them in preparation for an emergency, such as a war.

The Board of Education’s Buried Cultural Property Investigation Center of the prefecture said this was the largest number of copper coins being found in the prefecture at one location. The city’s Board of Education was washing them one at a time, classifying them according their different kinds, and doing the investigation.

According to Shimonoseki City University Professor Shin-ichi Sakuragi (Money Archaeology), in term of the quantity of copper coins found at one location, about 94,000 pieces were seen in Hisayama-cho, Fukuoka in Kyushu in 1919 and it was the most numerous. After discovering about 40,000 pieces in the same prefecture and in the Miyazaki prefecture at around 1960, there were no excavation that reached 10,000 pieces ever since. For the first time large quantity of excavation was noted after about 50 years. Professor Sakuragi was saying that "these were precious historical records for looking into the economic activities, the technical level, and the religious faith in those days.”

Obviously, this is an important historical finding for studying the economic and cultural flow between China and Japan.