Japanese measurements
There are two basic units of measurements in use in The Rice Harvest: the tan, for area, and the koku, for volume
- A tan is roughly a tenth of a hectare (or a quarter of an acre).
- A koku is roughly 180 litres.
The fundamental unit of area in Edo-period Japan was the tsubo, the area of two tatami mats. A tan is 300 tsubo. These measurements are still commonly used in modern Japan for various purposes.
A koku was originally defined as the amount of rice required to feed one person for one year, roughly 180 litres (it was later redefined to a larger volume), and served an important role in many official measurements, such as the wealth, in terms of rice production, of a given estate. The koku is still used today in more traditional industries, such as sake brewing.
For the sake of convenience in the game, we have used a decimal convention for both units (e.g. 36.5 koku), although in reality there were different names for different subdivisions of units, as with Imperial units and pre-decimalisation British currency (pounds, shillings and pence).
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