On New Year's Day, many traditional Japanese performance arts come into their element. Rakugo is a time-honored version of standup comedy. Well, sit-down really, since the kimono-clad performer actually sits on a cushion and uses nothing but a towel and a fan as props -- any kind of prop that may be required. The tragicomic stories that these linguistic magicians tell are countless.
A rarely performed piece deals with a little prince who has lived a very cosseted life. So aloof is he from worldly things that he knows not what money is, nor what it looks like. Thus, when he sees a coin pierced with an artistic hole in the middle, he thinks it must be a sword guard that has detached itself from a saber belonging to a princely doll not unlike his own royal self.
Euro coins do not have designer holes, and communication networks are such that even the most cocooned of royals around the globe today will by now not confuse them with a piece from a child's toy.