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Japan in the year 552.[1] At that time numerous artists, artisans, and physicians joined the Buddhist priests in their travels to Japan, whilst the Japanese in the 7th century also commenced to go abroad to learn medicine, the arts and sciences. Thus a Corean priest Kuwan-kin brought in 602 chronological and astronomical works to Japan. Another Corean priest Tan-tsching introduced the manufacture of paper and ink in Japan, which industry was energetically furthered by the famous prince-priest Sho-toku-daï-shi.[2] Until that time the Japanese had written on silk or hemp-tissue. All metallurgical processes, and especially the art of minting, the Japanese also learned from the Chinese. In the year 708 A.D. the first Japanese copper-coin called Wa-do-kai-zen was cast after the model of Chinese cash, which were till that time circulating in some parts of Japan, although in other parts of these islands only a barter-trade existed. This event has been immortalized in Japanese history by the institution of the Wa-do nengo (Japanese copper nengo) (708-714), as the reign of the Mikado Gen-meï is called.
Although gold and silver were known in China from the earliest times, the first Japanese gold was found and melted in 749 A.D., and the first Japanese silver in the year 674. It is a remarkable fact that the discovery of these metals, which were known to the Egyptians, the Chinese and old Greeks, and of which Moses and Homer already speak very distinctly, was not made in Japan at an earlier period.
Thus we see that the art of Metallurgy—although very primitive—was introduced in Japan together with other arts, sciences and the Buddhist religion. Von Siebold has expressed this very view in the following words:—“The Hindoos and Chinese were for the Japanese what the Greeks and Romans were for the west of Europe, the
