5 ms·
Fun fact: in feudal Japan, taxes and income were measured in koku of rice (approx 150 kg), which is roughly how much a person needed to sustain themselves for a
by decimalenough 1y ago
Fun fact: in feudal Japan, taxes and income were measured in koku of rice (approx 150 kg), which is roughly how much a person needed to sustain themselves for a year. The little plastic cup that comes with your rice cooker measures one gō, which is 1/1000th of a koku.
- IAmBroom 1y agoInteresting. I am assuming that is nominally "one ordinary peasant's rice consumption", not "enough rice to live on". One gō appears to be about 5 ounces/150 grams, and that is about 550 calories, or 25% of a nominal daily calorie need. One can quibble with the exact numbers - smaller stature Japanese feudal peasants, but heavier physical demands, etc. It works out to 25% of the calorie need, ironically close to the amount supplied by beer in an estimate of a European medieval monastery.
- reverendsteveii 1y agoit's reasonable to assume that this represents the amount of rice japan should allocate per-peasant in a functioning economy with other food sources. it would be meaningless and absurd to develop a standard for the amount of rice one would need in a year if and only if rice was the sole food source in their universe. In fact I'd be willing to bet there's no amount of rice that would keep a person alive for a year if that's all they ate.
- hyghjiyhu 1y agoDivided by 1000, not 365. So they eat just shy of 3 such portions a day.
- Nasrudith 1y agoWell Japanese peasants were also encouraged to live off of 'lesser' grains like millet, barley, and wheat. Let alone the other nutritionally imporant but non calorically-dense supplements like vegetables.