The Foundations of Japan | Page 7

1916--_in order to get a rough estimate of present
prices._"
Where exact statements of area and yield are necessary, as in the study
of the intense agriculture of Japan, local measures are preferable to our
equivalents in awkward fractions. Further, the measures used in this
book are easily remembered, and no serious study of Japanese

agriculture on the spot is possible without remembering them. While,
however, Japanese currency, weights and measures have been
uniformly used, equivalents have been supplied at every place in the
book where their omission might be reasonably considered to interfere
with easy reading. The following tables are restricted to currency,
weights and measures mentioned in the book.
MONEY[9]
Yen = roughly (at the time notes for the book were made) a florin or
half a dollar = 100 sen.
Sen = a farthing or half cent = 10 rin.
LONG
Ri = roughly 2-1/2 miles.
Shaku (roughly 1 ft.) = 11.93 in.
Ri are converted into miles by being multiplied by 2.44.
SQUARE
Ri (roughly 6 sq. miles) = 5.955 sq. miles.
Cho (sometimes written, _Chobu_) (roughly 2-1/2 acres) = 2.450 acres
= 10 tan = 3,000 tsubo.
Tan or Tambu (roughly 1/4 acre) = 0.245 acres = 10 se = 300 bu.
Bu or Tsubo (roughly 4 sq. yds.) = 3.953 sq. yds.
An acre is about 4 tan 10 bu or 1,200 bu or tsubo (an urban measure).
The size of rooms is reckoned by the number of mats, which are
ordinarily 6 shaku in length and 3 shaku in breadth.
CAPACITY
Koku (roughly 40 gals, or 5 bush.) = 39.703 gals, or 4.960 bush. = 10 to.
According to American measurements, there are 47.653 gals, (liquid)

and 5.119 bush, (dry) in a koku. A koku of rice is 313-1/2 lbs. (British).
A koku of imported rice is, however, 330-1/2 lbs. The following koku
must also be noted: ordinary barley, 231 lbs.; naked barley 301.1 lbs.;
wheat 288.7 lbs.; proso millet, 247.9 lbs.; foxtail millet, 280.9 lbs.;
barnyard millet, 165.2 lbs.; brickaheat, 247.9 lbs.; maize, 289.2 lbs.;
soya beans, 286.5 lbs.; azuki (red) beans, 319.9 lbs.; horse beans, 266.6
lbs.; peas, 306.5 lbs.
Hyo (roughly 2 bush.) = 1.985 bush. = 4 to = bale of rice.
To (roughly 4 gals, or 1/2 bush.) = 3.970 gals, or .496 bush, or 1.985
pecks = 10 sho.
Sho (roughly 1-1/2 qts.) = 1.588 qts. or 0.198 pecks or 108-1/2 cub. in.
= 10 go.
Go (roughly 1/3 pint) =.3176 pints or 0.019 pecks.
Rice is not bagged but baled, and a bale is 4 to or 1 hyo.
WEIGHT
Kwan or kwamme (roughly 8-1/4 lbs.) = 8.267 lbs. av. or 10.047 lbs.
troy = 1,000 momme.
Kin (catty) = 1.322 lbs. av. or 1.607 troy = 160 momme.
Momme = 2.116 drams or 2.411 dwts. According to American
measurements a momme is 0.132 oz. av. and 0.120 oz. troy.
Hyakkin (_picul_) = 100 kin = 132.277 lbs.
A stone is 1.693, a cwt. is 13.547, and a ton 270.950 kwamme.
LOCAL ADMINISTRATIVE TERMS
Ken.--Prefecture. There are forty-three ken and Hokkaido. Ken and fu
are made up of the former sixty-six provinces. Sometimes the name of

the ken and the name of the capital of the ken are the same: example,
Shidzuoka-ken, capital Shidzuoka.
Fu.--Three prefectures are municipal prefectures and are called not ken
but fu. They are Tokyo-fu, Kyoto-fu and Osaka-fu.
Gun (_kori_).--Division of a prefecture, a county or rural district. There
are 636 gun. Gun are now being done away with.
Shi.--City. There are seventy-nine cities.
Cho.--A town or rather a district preponderatingly urban. There are
1,333 cho.
Machi.--Japanese name for the Chinese character cho.
Son.--A village or rather a district preponderatingly rural. There are
10,839 son.
Mura.--Japanese name for a Chinese character son.
A true idea of the Japanese village is obtained as soon as one mentally
defines it as a commune. There may be a rural community called son or
a municipal community called cho. The cho or son consists of a
number of oaza, that is, big aza, which in turn consists of a number of
ko-aza or small aza. A ko-aza may consist of twenty or thirty dwellings,
that is, a hamlet, or it may be only one dwelling. It may be ten acres in
extent or fifty. I found that the population of a particular municipality
was 10,000 in seven big oaza comprising twenty-two ko-aza.
[Illustration: THE ROOM, OVERLOOKING THE PACIFIC, IN
WHICH MUCH OF THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN The feet of the
chair and table are fitted with wooden slats so as not to injure the
tatami. Electricity as a matter of course!]
[Illustration: THE MERCY OF BUDDHA The worshippers in the front
row lost relatives by a flood. This is not the priest referred to in

Chapter I
.]

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