shaku

In Japan, ? – 20^th century, various traditional units. By law, all official use of these units was to be discontinued on 31 March 1966. (The metric system was officially adopted in 1924, but use of traditional units continued.)

1

尺 Two units of length:

The most important was defined in 1891 as ¹⁰/₃₃ meters (30.3030… centimeters or about 11.93 inches). (UN 1966)

The second shaku was a unit of length legal only for cloth, by a law of 1881 = ¹²⁵/₃₃₀ meter (37.878... cm, or about 14.9130 inches). (UN 1966) See kujira shaku.

When it is necessary to distinguish the two units, the unit for cloth is called kujirajaku and the other kanejaku. “Kane” means “metal,” so kanejaku is a metal shaku. “Kujira” means “whale” (hence kujirajaku is a “whale shaku”) because rulers for measuring cloth were made from whale whiskers. For other Japanese terms relating to measurements of cloth, see here.

2

Two units of area:

a square shaku, 0.091827 square meters (approximately 0.988 square feet). (UN 1966)
勺 ¹/₁₀₀ of a tsubo, about 0.033058 square meters (about 0.356 square feet).

3

勺 A unit of dry or liquid capacity, ¹/₁₀₀th of a shō, since 1891 = ²⁴⁰¹⁰/₁₃₃₁ milliliters, about 18.039 milliliters (about 1.101 cubic inches).