Koku

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the unit of time written koku 刻, see Traditional Chinese timekeeping. For the shakuhachi song, see Kokū. For the fictional giant, see Tom Swift.

The koku (斛) is a Chinese-based

rice cookers.[3]

The koku in Japan was typically used as a

daimyō class when his domain amounted to at least 10,000 koku.[4] As a rule of thumb, one koku was considered a sufficient quantity of rice to feed one person for one year.[5][b][c]

The Chinese equivalent or cognate unit for capacity is the shi or dan (Chinese: 石; pinyin: shí, dàn; Wade–Giles: shih, tan) also known as hu (斛; hú; hu), now approximately 103 litres but historically about 59.44 litres (13.07 imp gal; 15.70 US gal).

Chinese equivalent

Further information: Dan (unit)

The Chinese shi or dan is equal to 10 dou (斗; dǒu; tou) "pecks", 100 sheng (升; shēng; sheng) "pints".[9] While the current shi is 103 litres in volume,[10] the shi of the Tang dynasty (618–907) period equalled 59.44 litres.[9]

Modern unit

The exact modern koku is calculated to be 180.39 litres, 100 times the capacity of a modern

shakkanhō measuring system.[16]

Origin of the modern unit

The kyō-masu (

Nobunaga,[17] began to be made in a different (larger) size in the early Edo period, sometime during the 1620s.[18] Its dimensions, given in the traditional Japanese shaku length unit system, were 4 sun 9 bu square times 2 sun 7 bu depth.[f][18][13] Its volume, which could be calculated by multiplication was:[11]

1 koku = 100 shō = 100 × (49 bu × 49 bu × 27 bu) = 100 × 64,827 cubic bu[18][g]

Although this was referred to as shin kyō-masu or the "new" measuring cup in its early days,[18] its use supplanted the old measure in most areas in Japan, until the only place still left using the old cup ("edo-masu") was the city of Edo,[19] and the Edo government passed an edict declaring the kyō-masu the official nationwide measure standard[17] in 1669 (Kanbun 9).[19]

Modern measurement enactment

When the 1891 Japanese Weights and Measures Act [ja] was promulgated, it defined the shō unit as the capacity of the standard kyo-masu of 64827 cubic bu.[15] The same act also defined the shaku length as 10⁄33 metre.[15] The metric equivalent of the modern shō is 2401⁄1331 litres.[20] The modern koku is therefore 240,100⁄1331 litres, or 180.39 litres.[21]

The modern shaku defined here is set to equal the so-called setchū-shaku (setchū-jaku or "compromise shaku"),[22] measuring 302.97 mm, a middle-ground value between two different kane-jaku standards.[h][23][22] A researcher has pointed out that the (shin) kyō-masu [ja] cups ought to have used take-jaku which were 0.2% longer.[12][i] However, the actual measuring cups in use did not quite attain the take shaku metric, and when the Japanese Ministry of Finance had collected actual samples of masu from the masu-za [ja] (measuring-cup guilds) of both eastern and western Japan, they found that the measurements were close to the average of take-jaku and kane-jaku.[28]

Lumber koku

The "lumber koku" or "maritime koku" is defined as equal to 10 cubic

board feet, but in practice may convert to less.[30]
In metric measures 1 lumber koku is about 278.3 litres (61.2 imp gal; 73.5 US gal).

Historic use

The exact measure now in use was devised around the 1620s, but not officially adopted for all of Japan until the Kanbun era (1660s).

Feudal Japan

Under the

US$676.77 million in 2019)[31]). Many samurai, including hatamoto
(a high-ranking samurai), received stipends in koku, while a few received salaries instead.

The kokudaka was reported in terms of

Satsuma clan which reported in terms of unhusked or non-winnowed rice (momi (籾).[33] Since this practice had persisted, past Japanese rice production statistics need to be adjusted for comparison with other countries that report production by milled or polished rice.[6]

Even in certain parts of the

Hokkaidō), where rice could not be grown, the economy was still measured in terms of koku, with other crops and produce converted to their equivalent value in terms of rice.[34]
The kokudaka was not adjusted from year to year, and thus some fiefs had larger economies than their nominal koku indicated, due to land reclamation and new rice field development, which allowed them to fund development projects.

As measure of cargo ship class

Koku was also used to measure how much a ship could carry when all its loads were rice. Smaller ships carried 50 koku (7.5 tonnes, 7.4 long tons, 8.3 short tons) while the biggest ships carried over 1,000 koku (150 tonnes, 150 long tons, 170 short tons). The biggest ships were larger than military vessels owned by the shogunate.

In popular culture

The

Kanazawa, Japan celebrates the arrival of daimyō Maeda Toshiie into the city in 1583, although Maeda's income was not raised to over a million koku until after the Battle of Sekigahara
in 1600.

In fiction

The James Clavell novel Shōgun uses the Koku measure extensively as a plot device by many of the main characters as a method of reward, punishment and enticement. While fiction, it shows the importance of the fief, the rice measure and payments.

Explanatory notes

  1. ^ 180 litres (4.9 imp bsh; 5.1 US bsh)
  2. rice bran
    ).
  3. kakun [ja]) of a certain merchant family in the Edo period.[8]
  4. millilitres)[12] or 1.803906 litres.[13]
  5. ^ The Edo Period koku was roughly 180 litres or 5 bushels.[14]
  6. ^ sun = 1⁄10 shaku and bu = 1⁄100 shaku respectively.
  7. ^ Also =100 × 64.827 cubic sun.[13]
  8. bakufu's official Kyōho-jaku 303.36 mm.[23] The matashirō-jaku 又四郎尺 devised by a carpenter[22] is a type of the carpentry scale was the commoner's type of 曲尺 (kane-jaku/kyoku-jaku/magari-jaku).[24][25]
  9. Kyoho era (1716-1736).[27]

References

Citations
  1. ISBN 978-9-00427-972-8
    .
  2. ^
    ISBN 1-85233-682-X
    .
  3. ISBN 978-0-307-81355-8
    .
  4. ^
    ISBN 0-52189-054-3
    .
  5. ^
    ISBN 1-134-20786-7
    .
  6. ^
    ISBN 978-1-31733-947-2
    .
  7. ^ Yamaguchi, Tomoko 山口智子 (2017). "Mushi kamado de taita beihan no bussei to oishisa no hyōka" 蒸しかまどで炊いた米飯の物性とおいしさの評価 [Evaluation of physical properties and taste of rice cooked by steamed rice cooker, Mushikamado] (PDF). Bulletin of the Faculty of Education. Natural Sciences. 34 (2). Niigata University: 224.
  8. JSTOR 2384323
    .
  9. ^
    JSTOR 1005570
  10. ISBN 0-674-01684-X
    .
  11. ^ a b By definition. 1 koku = 10 to = 100 shō.[2]
  12. ^ a b Midorikawa (2012), p. 99.
  13. ^ a b c Japanese government (1878). Le Japon à l'exposition universelle de 1878: 2ème partie (in French). Commission Impériale Japonaise. p. 18.
  14. JSTOR 2717787
  15. ^ a b c Nihon shakai jii 日本社會事彙 (in Japanese). Vol. 2. Keizai Zasshi Sha. 1907. p. 1252. 升 六萬四千八百二十七立方分
  16. ^ Weights and Measures Act (Japan) [ja] (1891).[15]
  17. ^
    ISBN 9780521223546
  18. ^ a b c d Amano (1979), p. 10–13.
  19. ^ a b Umemura, Mataji 梅村又次; Hayami, Akira 速水融; Miyamoto Matarō 宮本又郎, eds. (1979), Nihon keizaishi 1 keizaishakai no seiritsu: 17~18 seiki 日本経済史 1 経済社会の成立: 17~18世紀 (in Japanese), Iwanami
  20. ^ Koizumi, Kesakatsu 小泉袈裟勝, ed. (1981). Tan'i no jiten 単位の辞典 (in Japanese) (revised 4th ed.). Rateisu. p. 394.
  21. ^ Midorikawa (2012), p. 99: "1,803.9 cm3".
  22. ^ a b c Weights and Measures in Japan: Past and Present (1914), pp. 18–19: "The setchū-shaku.. [which] Inō Chūkei.. invented.. a mean between the matashirō-shaku and the kyōho-shaku, and was therefore called the measure of setchū (compromise). The length is the same as that of the present shaku".
  23. ^ a b "Setchū-jaku せっちゅう‐じゃく【折衷尺】", Seisen-ban Nihon kokugo daijiten, Shogakukan, via kotobank. accessed 2020-02-07.
  24. ^ JWMA 1978, p. 25.
  25. ^ "kanejaku; kyokushaku" かねじゃく【曲尺】;きょくしゃく【曲尺】. Digital Daijisen デジタル大辞泉. Shogakukan. Retrieved 2019-08-03.
  26. ^ JWMA 1978, p. 1.
  27. ^ Ōtsuki, Nyoden; Krieger, Carel Coenruad (1940). The Infiltration of European Civilization in Japan During the 18th Century. Brill. p. 598.
  28. ^ JWMA (1978), p. 2: "The results of measuring original vessels at both the East and West Masu-za yielded (a value) near the average of take-jaku and magari-jaku (=kane-jaku) 東西両桝座の原器の測定結果では、竹尺と曲り尺の平均した長さに近".
  29. ISBN 0-52006-313-9
    .
  30. ^ United States Forest Service (1945), Japan: forest resources, forest products, forest policy, Division of forest economics, Forest service, U.S. Dept. of agriculture, p. 11
  31. ^
    Williamson J., Nominal Wage, Cost of Living, Real Wage and Land Rent Data for Japan 1831-1938, 1939 to 1945: Bank of Japan Historical Statistics Afterwards, Japanese Historical Consumer Price Index numbers based on data available from the Japanese Statistics Bureau. Japan Historical Consumer Price Index (CPI) – 1970 to 2014 Retrieved 30 July 2014. For between 1946 and 1970, from "昭和戦後史"
    . Retrieved 2015-01-24.
  32. ^ "Shōhisha bukka shisū (CPI) kekka" 消費者物価指数 (CPI) 結果 [Consumer Price Index (CPI) results] (CSV). Statistics Bureau of Japan (in Japanese). Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
  33. ISBN 9789004279728
    .
  34. ISBN 0804708150
    .
Bibliography
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