[Details of the two shaku units]
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The use of the unit for official purposes in Japan was banned on March 31 1966, although it is still used in traditional Japanese carpentry and some other fields, such as kimono
The is a traditional Japanese garment and the national dress of Japan. The kimono is a wrapped-front garment with square sleeves and a rectangular body, and is worn left side wrapped over right, unless the wearer is deceased. The kimono ...
construction. The traditional Japanese bamboo flute known as the ( and ) derives its name from its length of one and eight . Similarly, the remains in use in the Japanese lumber trade. In the Japanese construction industry, the standard sizes of drywall, plywood, and other sheet goods are based on , with the most common width being three (rounded up to 910mm).
In Japanese media parlance, refers to screen time: the amount of time someone or something is shown on screen (similar to the English "footage").
History
Traditionally, the actual length of the varied over time, location, and use. By the early 19th century, the was largely within the range of , but a longer value of the (also known as the ) was also known, and was 1.17 times longer than the present value ().
Carpenter's unit and tailor's unit
Another variant was used for measuring cloth, which measured meters (), and was known as the , as baleen (whale whiskers) were used as cloth rulers.
To distinguish the two variants of , the general unit was known as the .[ The ]Shōsōin
The is the treasure house of Tōdai-ji Temple in Nara, Japan. The building is in the ''azekura'' ( log-cabin) style with a raised floor. It lies to the northwest of the Great Buddha Hall. The Shōsō-in houses artifacts connected to Emperor Shō ...
treasure house in Nara
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It i ...
preserves some antique ivory one- rulers, known as the .乙
Derived units
Length
Just as with the Chinese unit, the is divided into ten smaller units, known as in Japanese, and ten together form a larger unit known in Japanese as a . The Japanese also had a third derived unit, the , equal to six ; this was used extensively in traditional Japanese architecture as the distance between supporting pillars in Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
temples
A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...
and Shinto
Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...
shrines.[
]
Volume
Ten cubic comprised a , reckoned as the amount of rice
Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima
''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...
necessary to sustain a peasant for a year.
Outside Japan
The Japanese also forms the basis of the modern Taiwanese foot.
In 1902, the Korean Empire
The Korean Empire () was a Korean monarchical state proclaimed in October 1897 by Emperor Gojong of the Joseon dynasty. The empire stood until Japan's annexation of Korea in August 1910.
During the Korean Empire, Emperor Gojong oversaw the Gwa ...
adopted the Japanese definition of the as that of the ().
See also
* Japanese units of measurement
Traditional Japanese units of measurement or the shakkanhō (, "''shaku–kan'' system") is the traditional system of measurement used by the people of the Japanese archipelago. It is largely based on the Chinese system, which spread to Japan an ...
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
{{Japanese architectural elements
Japanese words and phrases
Units of length