10,000 yen note
The 10,000 yen note (1万円紙幣 "1Man-en shihei") is the largest banknote denomination of the Japanese yen. The front side of the 10,000 yen note includes a portrait of Yukichi Fukuzawa, a Meiji era philosopher and the founder of Keio University. The back of the note shows a drawing of the Hōō (, Fenghuang) in the Hall of the Phoenix, Byōdō-in.
Japanese mon (currency)
The was the currency of Japan from the Muromachi period in 1336, until the early Meiji period in 1870. It co-circulated with the new sen until 1891. The Kanji for "mon" is and the character for currency was widely used in the Chinese-character cultural sphere, e.g. Chinese wen, Korean mun. Throughout Japanese history, there were many different styles of currency of many shapes, styles, designs, sizes and materials, including gold, silver, bronze, etc. Coins denominated in mon were cast in copper or iron and circulated alongside silver and gold ingots denominated in "shu", "bu" and "ryō", with 4000 mon = 16 shu = 4 bu = 1 ryo. In 1869, due to depreciation against gold, the new fixing officially was set for 1 ryo/yen = equal to 10.000 mon. The yen started to replace the old duodecimal denominations in 1870: in 3rd quarter of 1870, the first new coins appeared, namely 5, 10, 50 sen silver and 2, 5, 10, 20 Yen. Smaller sen coins did not appear before spring, 1873. So the mon coins (1, 4, 100, 250 mon etc.) remained a necessity for ordinary peoples commodities and were allowed to circulate until 1891.12.31. Only from Jan. 1, 1954 onward the mon became invalid: postwar inflation had removed sen, mon etc. denominations smaller than 1 Yen. Due to the missing small coinage, the Japanese posts e.g. issued their first stamps (Meiji 4.3.1/1871.4.20) in mon and fixed postal rates in mon until April, 1872 (Meiji 5.2.28).