Although the country is officially metric, the shaku system is still widely used by carpenters throughout Japan. If you want to get the full immersive Japanese woodworking experience, there's nothing quite like letting this system into your head. Once you get used to it it's very pleasant to use, combining the fast easy maths of decimal with the rational unit sizes of imperial. The widths of your Japanese chisels will suddenly match your work.
The Japanese Shaku measuring system is most easily understood as a decimal foot (1 shaku = 30.3cm or 11.93") divided into ten sun, each of which is divided into ten bu.
Shinwa's wonderfully simple traditional Kane-shaku bamboo rule has un-numbered graduations, just a full width line for each sun and a dot every five bu.
- Length: Tolerance ±0.5 mm
- Graduation: Upper/lower 1 bu (3.03 mm) increments
- Dimensions: 303mm x 23mm x 3mm
