I have had this coin for almost 10 years I forgot about it I just found it while looking for some comics Don't know anything about it besides it's from 2004 Japan and it's gold
Very interesting item. I think we have members here who can read some Japanese and translate the inscriptions. I wonder if it is a commemorative medal or token (rather than a coins).
On one side we see a ship that looks like it could be one of the Portuguese trading ships from the 16th or 17th century that sailed to Japan:
On the other side we see a figure with the typical iconography of a saint (maybe holding a small book, and with a halo).
There were Potuguese Jesuit missionaries in Japan from the late 1500s until Catholicism was banned in Japan a few decades later. Maybe something to do with this?
I suspect this is a zodiac charm. When playing around with the 2 characters below the date I got the translation "Yang wood monkey". 2004 was the year of the monkey and Wood is one of the 5 elements so the owner was a wood monkey in terms of birth and fortune. Maybe the yang is to do with yin and yang? Not sure where the ship and other items fit in. A cool item though.
PS Can you please rotate photos so they are correct orientation when posting.
The elements of the different years of the monkey are: (Note dates are in the UK/world format of dd/mm/yyyy)
Earth 02/02/1908, Metal 20/02/1920, Water 06/02/1932, Wood 25/01/1944, Fire 12/02/1956, Earth 30/01/1968, Metal 16/02/1980, Water 04/02/1992, Wood 22/01/2004, Fire 08/02/2016, Earth 26/01/2028, Metal 12/02/2040
As you say the year of the wood monkey would be 2004.
I'd say the side with the three Halo wearing entities overlooking a globe in the heavens might be Christian themed. I wonder if this is some sort of Church or other Temple specific medal/token. I presume the ship encasing is supposed to be a Lotus blossom.
I wondered if it might be related to the Nagasaki Martyrs, who were executed in 1597, and canonized as saints in 1862. But 2004 doesn't make any sense as a commemorative date.
The date I see most often for the origins of Christianity in Japan is 1549, which also doesn't relate to 2004 in any obvious way, but would make sense with the ship and the image of a Catholic cleric with a halo (Saint Francis Xavier).
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