Japan
| SI units | |
|---|---|
| 0.3030 m | 303.0 mm |
| US customary / Imperial units | |
| 0.9942 ft | 11.93 in |
Since 1891, the Japanese shaku (尺, shaku?) has been defined to equal 10/33 meters (approximately 30.3 cm, or 11.93 inches), or 3.3 shaku to the meter. A single shaku is divided into 10 sun.
In the past, a longer value of shaku (known as kōrai-shaku), equal to approximately 1.17 of modern standard shaku, or 35.5 cm (14 inches), was in use.
Another unit of length also called the shaku was used only for measuring cloth. This shaku measured 125/330 meters (approximately 37.9 cm, or 14.9 inches). When a distinction needed to be made between the two shaku, the cloth unit was referred to as kujirajaku (whale shaku, as the rulers for measuring cloth were made from whale whiskers) and the other shaku was referred to as kanejaku (metal shaku).
While Japanese law required official use of these units be discontinued on March 31, 1966, the shaku is still used in some fields in Japan, such as traditional carpentry. The ken and jō are larger than a shaku: six shaku make up one ken; ten shaku make up one jō. The ken is commonly the distance between pillars in traditional buildings such as Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines.
The Shōsōin in Nara has ivory one-shaku rulers, the kōgebachiru-no-shaku (紅牙撥鏤尺?).
The shakuhachi is a Japanese bamboo flute whose name (尺八) means " shaku eight ", because, traditionally, its standard length was one shaku and eight sun, i.e. 1.8 shaku.
Read more about this topic: Shaku (unit)
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—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)