Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/312

 was the shiro, a word signifying "exchange," and owing its employment to the fact that rice was the basis of all barter. The shiro signified the area of land that produced a "sheaf," and fifty shiro consequently formed a tan. Grants of land made in old times by way of salary and allowances to officials were spoken of in terms of the shiro. Five hundred thousand shiro represented the area afterwards called "one thousand chō," and gave an income of twenty thousand koku (two hundred thousand sheaves) of unhulled rice.  —Raw silk and raw cotton were also among the articles levied, but they seem to have been taken instead of silk or cotton fabrics.  —The ryō was the principal monetary unit. It was divided into sixty parts, each called a momme.  —The length of the bow and arrow were determined with reference to the capacity of the archer. In the case of the bow, the unit of measurement was the distance between the tips of the thumb and the little finger with the hand fully stretched. Fifteen of these units gave the dimensions of the bow. Hence, with a six-inch stretch, the bow would be seven feet six inches long. The unit for the arrow was a hand's breadth, and from twelve to fifteen units gave the length,—i. e. from three feet to three feet nine inches.  —Seventeen masters are universally recognised as the greatest that ever forged a blade. They are of Yamato province, and his pupil Amaga; Shinsoku, priest of the Shrine of Usa in Buzen; Yasatsune and Sanemori, also of Buzen;  of Kyōtō, commonly called Sanjo no Kokaji (the little smith of Sanjo);  of Chikugo; Maikusa Yukishige of Oshiu; Genshōbō Jōshin, a Buddhist prelate of Hiko-san in Bungo; Ki-no-Shindayu Yukihira of the same province; Gyobu-no-Jo Norimune of Bizen; Kunitomo, Hisakuni, Kunitsuna and Yoshimune of Kyoto; Yoshihiro of Yetchiu and Goro Nyudo Masamune of Soshiu. The last of these ranks highest.  —The method by which this result was obtained is explained in the chapter on Applied Art.  —The clay was first plastered over the whole blade, and then removed along the edge by means of a bamboo 