The Mogami River, chosen by Yamagata Prefecture for its 2014 silver 1000 yen coin, belongs to a single prefecture. It rises on Mount Azuma near Yonezawa in the south of Yamagata, flows north, turns west at Shinjo and reaches the Sea of Japan at Sakata. Its whole course runs through Yamagata.

The Mogami is one of Japan's three swiftest rivers, alongside the Fuji and the Kuma. Boats once carried rice and safflower, prized as a dye, from the interior down to the coast, and Matsuo Basho, travelling through in 1689, wrote verses about it. On the coin the river is joined by cherries, the prefecture's other emblem. Catalogue reference: Y# 214.

Coins of the Local Autonomy Law 60th anniversary programme have a diagonally reeded edge, which the Japan Mint applies at the same moment the design is struck. This 1000 yen piece is pure silver with a colour design and a mintage of 100,000, finished in proof with mirror fields and frosted relief, and presented in a souvenir pack with stamps.