gurdymonkey | Commentary requested: proposed Masu Challenge annoucement.

The following is the result of some random thoughts inspired by a conversation with a member of the kingdom Moneyer's Guild over on the new WK Artisan's site and some recent reading.

Japan did not mint its own coins until the 17th century, choosing instead to import coins from mainland China. As much of the land was given over to the production of rice, income was measured in "koku," the amount of rice needed to feed one person for a year.

A "masu" was the amount of rice needed to feed one person for a day. (If you have drunk sake from a small wooden box, you have used a masu to do so, though the cedar and plastic masu now used for that purpose are much smaller than the period measure that would hold a day's worth of uncooked rice.)

One koku is about 330 pounds, therefore, a masu is equivalent to about 0.904 pounds (2 1/4 cups) of uncooked rice. Multiply by a factor of four and this cooks up to 9 cups of rice, most likely supplemented with fresh or pickled vegetables and a bit of fish. Suddenly, the lowly masu seems like a realistic measure after all.

In a year in which many suffer hunger and misfortune, it has been this writer's karma to receive an income appropriate to her station and way of life. When I read of Their Majesties' suggestion that members of their populace might offer refreshments for forty at their upcoming Crown Tourney, I thought about how much it would cost to feed forty people for a day based on the masu/koku model. To that end, The House of Cheerful Monkeys pledges $50.00 to Bay Area Food Banks and will be begging for alms at October Crown in the event anyone would like to help.

Good? Bad?

EDIT: Clearly I am the only one paranoid enough to read this as a subversive attack on Crown and Kingdom for not having thought of it themselves, so it was posted this morning to the kingdom list. Yes, it will be competing with other fundraisers, but when you consider that you can feed one person for one day for about a dollar in my proposed rice-based economy, that's nothing to sneeze at.