koku

American  

[koh-koo, kaw-koo] / ˈkoʊ ku, ˈkɔ kʊ /

noun

1. a Japanese unit of dry measure equivalent to 5.12 bushels (1.8 hectoliters).

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

• koku
  plural

Etymology

Origin of koku

< Japanese < Middle Chinese, equivalent to Chinese hú measure

Example Sentences

Everyone possessing a fief of 10,000 koku or upwards was called a daimyo.

From A History of the Japanese People From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era by Brinkley, F. (Frank)

The third Tokugawa shogun, Iemitsu, extended the restriction by ordering that even families having estates of only three thousand koku should not intermarry without Yedo's previous consent.

From A History of the Japanese People From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era by Brinkley, F. (Frank)

Statistics compiled in 1836 show that the revenue annually collected from the Tokugawa estates in rice and money amounted to 807,068 koku and 93,961 gold ryo respectively.

From A History of the Japanese People From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era by Brinkley, F. (Frank)

His income was thenceforth reduced to 120,000 koku annually, derived from estates in the provinces of Mino, Ise, and Omi.

From A History of the Japanese People From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era by Brinkley, F. (Frank)

Thus an estate paying one hundred koku in the form of land-tax, had to pay a further five koku as buke-yaku, the latter proceeds being sent to Kyoto for the use of the shogun's household.

From A History of the Japanese People From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era by Brinkley, F. (Frank)