Yukichi Fukuzawa and the Greats Chosen to be on Bills （Nakatsu History Museum）

Yukichi Fukuzawa and the Greats Chosen to be on Bills

Finished

The portraits on bills are chosen from people widely known to the public, active since the Meiji era, and who contributed to society through education, industry, and other areas.

Yukichi Fukuzawa, who led the modernization of Japan from various aspects including ideology, education, and economics, was a person who was truly worthy of being portrayed on Japanese money.

In 2024, Yukichi Fukuzawa’s portrait on the 10,000 yen bill was changed after 40 years of service. This special exhibition will take a fresh look at the character of Yukichi Fukuzawa prior to the change.

In addition to Yukichi Fukuzawa, the exhibition will also display items related to the great people whose portraits will be used on the new bills, such as Eiichi Shibusawa and Shibasaburo Kitasato. The exhibition will also showcase the stories of those who were previously portrayed, such as Fukuzawa’s contemporaries, Taisuke Itagaki and Hirobumi Ito, and the reverse side of the bills, whose designs symbolize Japanese history, culture, and nature.

Viewers will learn of their origins, their experiences of traveling to the West that became the source of their power to promote modernization, their thoughts, their dress, and their footprints.