1 Shaku 6 Sun (52cm equiv.) Sashigane - Thick Corner

For those who have always wanted to try their hand working in traditional Japanese measurements, this sashigane includes shaku-based measurements as well as the calculated marking which make the sashigane much more than a simple square.

This sashigane has a very traditional profile, with a thick corner and thin edges that allow it to be used with ink-based tools without causing ink to bleed under the square.

It's main difference from our other sashigane models is that it's front face displays traditional Japanese measuring units. Each whole number on this face denotes a sun (30.3mm), which is subdivided into 10 bu (3.03mm). On the short arm, the bu markings are further subdivided into half-bu markings for the first three sun, and for the first five sun on the long arm. The total length of the long arm is 16 sun, equal to 1.6 shaku (48.48cm).

On the inside edges of this face, bu increments are marked to the 10 sun (long arm) or 7 sun (short arm) points.

The rear face is the much more involved side of this sashigane. The outside edge of the short arm displays the same shaku-based measurements as the front, however, the inside edge is a pythagorean square scale used for marking out hip rafters.

The rear of the long arm displays a circular scale along it's outside edge, for measuring the largest possible square cross-section able to be milled from a circular log. The inside edge of the long arm displays shaku measurements zero-ed on the inside of the short arm. Finally, the end of the long arm has a three-shaku measure zero-ed from the end of the arm, to be used for measuring the depth of mortices.

If you are considering working in sun and bu, we recommend sticking to that measuring system for the whole project. Trying to calculate conversions between metric and shaku systems can lead to a cracking old headache and misplacing your decimals, so staying within one system is a good way of avoiding it all.

The width of this sashigane is 15mm.

Made in Japan