The kan, unit of mass
The kan weighs exactly 3.75 kilograms, that is a thousand momme. It is the largest of the Japanese mass units, the one in which wholesale rice and fish were counted.
Its round value is no accident. The Weights and Measures Law of 1891 defined the kan as exactly 3.75 kilograms, and the shaku as ten thirty-thirds of a meter: from that year Japan's traditional system was a derivative of the metric one rather than a rival to it, seventy-five years before traditional units were barred from commercial documents. The kin still printed on food labels is 600 grams, so the kan is six and a quarter kin.
The kan in other units
| 1 kan | 0.00375 t |
| 1 kan | 3.75 kg |
| 1 kan | 3,750 g |
| 1 kan | 3,750,000 mg |
| 1 kan | 8.26733 lb |
| 1 kan | 132.277 oz |
| 1 kan | 120.565 oz t |
| 1 kan | 0.590524 st |
| 1 kan | 18,750 ct |
| 1 kan | 0.00413367 ton US |
| 1 kan | 0.00369077 ton UK |
| 1 kan | 3,750,000,000 µg |
| 1 kan | 7.5 lb metric |
| 1 kan | 321.507 tola |
| 1 kan | 1,000 momme |
Frequently asked questions
Are the kan and the kanme the same unit?
Yes, both words name the same 3.75 kilograms, kanme being the form used in old ledgers and on wholesale markets. That is 8.2673 pounds, and the 60 kilogram rice sack, the reference format of the Japanese harvest, weighs exactly 16 kan.
Why do a thousand momme make one kan?
Because the kan began as a string of a thousand copper coins, the kanmon: each mon weighed about one momme, and the roll threaded on its cord weighed one kan. That is why the weight and the money of account carry the same name, and why Edo debts were written in kanmon.
Does the kan exist outside Japan?
In Korea, as the gwan, with the same values taken up in the weights and measures reform of the early twentieth century: 3.75 kilograms to the gwan and 600 grams to the geun. The geun is still alive on the markets, with a trap the visitor meets at the till, since it is 600 grams for meat and fish but 375 for fruit and vegetables.