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The weights of old Japan, from the pearl-weigher’s monme to the kan. Part of the Ancient Measures collection.
Every unit converts through grams: monme = 3.75 g exactly, kin = 160 monme, kan = 1000 monme. Worked example: a yokozuna at 150 kan = 150 × 3.75 = 562.5 kg — heavier than any real wrestler; the great Konishiki peaked near 40 kan (150 kg). The monme is one of the few pre-metric units still in daily international use — pearl dealers quote in monme worldwide.
Exactly 3.75 g. It survives as the international pearl weight — a dealer in Kobe and one in New York mean the same monme.
1000 monme, 3.75 kg — the largest traditional weight. Temple bells were cast by the kan; sumo wrestlers are still weighed in kan.
The kin is the ‘catty’ position in the system (compare China’s 16-liang jin) — but Japan decimalized the small end: 10 monme make nothing; the monme itself is the atom.
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