Episode 33: Konjac was used on Japan's first banknotes!?

Episode 33: Konjac was used on Japan's first banknotes!?

Episode 32 piqued my interest in the relationship between konjac and money, so I did some more research.
It was discovered that the first Japanese banknote, the "Daikoku note," contained konjac powder.
It was added to strengthen the paper quality, but apparently this led to frequent damage from mice and insects eating the paper.
This is just my speculation, but I think that in Japan at that time, lacking resources and technology, they wanted to make good use of the glue-like properties of konjac powder.

The Daikoku bill (issued in 1885 [Meiji 18]) depicts a seated image of Daikokuten, the god of commerce and agriculture. Four types of bills were issued: the old 1 yen bill, the old 5 yen bill, the old 10 yen bill, and the old 100 yen bill. The old 1 yen bill is still valid as 1 yen today. Incidentally, the current value of an old 1 yen bill on a certain auction site seems to be over 30,000 yen.

The banknote that famously depicted the nouveau riche character saying, "See how much brighter it is now?" was a 100-yen note. It might even have been this Daikoku note.

Reference: Bank of Japan https://www.boj.or.jp/announcements/education/arekore1.htm/
From the National Printing Bureau: https://www.npb.go.jp/ja/intro/ostu_history.html
From MoneyMotto! https://news.hoken-mammoth.jp/newlyrich/