Japan’s medieval age was a time of tremendous change as people began using imported Chinese coins, selling goods in regional markets, and developing new instruments of credit. Such activities surely affected the ways that people viewed the world, yet curiously, few left behind lengthy written reflections on economic matters like those found in other premodern societies as well as in Tokugawa Japan. Perhaps that is why most published histories of Japanese economic thought begin in the Tokugawa or later periods. What broader significance did medieval Japanese assign to wealth and poverty?  Why did their view of usury differ from those found in other contemporary societies?  And, perhaps most importantly, what types of evidence can be marshalled to answer these questions?  This research draws on primary sources from diaries and government documents to folktales, religious stories, and illustrated scrolls in an effort to answer them.