or Japanese foot is a

Japanese unit 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 ...

of length derived (but varying) from the

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

, originally based upon the distance measured by a human hand from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the forefinger (compare

span Span may refer to: Science, technology and engineering * Span (unit), the width of a human hand * Span (engineering), a section between two intermediate supports * Wingspan, the distance between the wingtips of a bird or aircraft * Sorbitan ester ...

). Traditionally, the length varied by location or use, but it is now standardized as 10/33 m, or approximately .

Etymology in English

entered English in the early 18th century,Oxford English Dictionary, Volume XV page 148 Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, 1986 a romanization of the Japanese Go-on reading of the character for .

Use in Japan

The had been standardized as since 1891. This means that there are 3.3 () to one meter.Details of the two shaku units
a
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/ref> 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 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 ...

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'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...

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 adopted the Japanese definition of the as that of the ().

Notes

References

Bibliography

* {{Japanese architectural elements Japanese words and phrases Units of length