Gō (volume)

The nihongo|gō|合| is a traditional Japanese unit of area and volume. It expresses a tenth of a particular quantity.

As a unit expressing area, one gō is equivalent to a tenth of a bu or tsubo. This is approximately equal to 0.3306 m².

As a unit expressing volume, one gō is equivalent to a tenth of a shō. This is approximately equal to 0.1809 liters.

Although it is no longer used officially, rice and sake are often measured in "gō". As a rule of thumb, one "gō" is equivalent to about 150 grams of Japanese short grain rice. A "gō" is 1/1000 of a "koku", the base unit which was historically defined as the amount of rice needed to feed one person for a year. It is a very old unit of measurement and recently there has been some attempts of revival which have met with success; Fact|date=October 2007 several more things are now being measured in "gō" like traditional Japanese fish (especially the dangerous Fugu) and several restaurants have re-instated it as part of a more traditionalistic way of seeing the country's culture.

The Japanese gō is distinct from the Chinese unit gě, although both are written with the same character. The gě is also a unit of volume, but its size is a tenth of a , or roughly 0.881 liters.

References

* cite book
last = Matsumura
first = Akira
title = Daijirin
publisher = Sanseidō
date = 1995
id = ISBN 4-385-14009-X