Most of the business cards used by the municipal employees of Fukuoka City are printed with a shiny mark. Whenever they distribute the cards, the recipients invariably ask if that mark represents is the gold seal.That’s right—the gold seal is Fukuoka City’s only national treasure, and it is formally referred to as the Kan no Wa no Na no Kokuo.
It was discovered on the Shikanoshima in Hakata Bay in February 1784 by someone engaged in agricultural work. To be precise, the seal surface is a rather small 2.347 centimeters square, and the seal on the municipal employees’ business cards is the same size. The seal itself weighs 108 grams.
Research into the real nature of the seal, which has a coiled snake depicted on the knob, was conducted by the noted Edo period scholar Nanmei Kamei, who lived in Tojin-machi, a castle town. The seal matches the description in the Hohanshu, an ancient Chinese historical record, a seal presented by the Emperor Gwang Wu to the chief government official of northern Kyushu when the latter visited China in the year 57. The official name contains the name of the Chinese dynasty, followed by the name of the ethnic group and the tribe. The “Wa no Na” refers to the “tribe” of the Japanese.
The seal was given to the Kuroda family, the feudal lords of the Fukuoka domain. It was then presented to Fukuoka City in 1978 when the Fukuoka Art Museum was built. It is now in the collection of the Fukuoka City Museum in Momochihama, where it is on display.
The government designated the gold seal a national treasure in 1954. In 1973 and 1974, the Fukuoka City Education Committee and Kyushu University conducted exploratory excavations at the site where it was said to have been discovered. That site is now the Kinin Park. Many tourists mistakenly believe the seal is on display at the park, but I’ve been asked to be sure to tell people to find it at the Fukuoka City Museum.
Disputes remain about who discovered the seal, where it was discovered, and the characters on its face. It’s still full of secrets after all these years!
Originally published in Fukuoka Now magazine (fn134, Feb. 2010)
