Jō to Yards (jō to yd)

1 jō equals 3.313979692 yards (rounded).

1 jō = 3.313979692 yards

How to convert jō to yards

To convert jō to yards, multiply the number of jō by 3.313979692. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply yards by 0.301752.

yards = jō × 3.313979692

Example: 10 jō = 33.13979692 yards.

About these units

Jō (jō)

JapaneseTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

Ten shaku, exactly 100/33 meter (about 3.03 m).

Jo, written with the character for a tall person or elder, is the largest of the everyday shaku multiples, standing at ten shaku. Do not confuse it with the other jo, the counter for tatami mats, which describes floor area rather than length.

With the shaku fixed at 10/33 meter by Japan's 1891 law, one jo comes to exactly 100/33 meter, about 3.03 meters or 9.94 feet. Earlier values shifted with the shaku, which ranged from roughly 30.2 to 30.3 centimeters, so premodern figures in jo are good only to within a centimeter or two per shaku.

It sits between the ken, at six shaku, and the chō, at 360 shaku. Its use outside tradition is limited. Modern building plans and trade measures use meters, so the jo appears mainly in historical texts, descriptions of temples and in discussion of the older measuring system.

1 jō = 3.03030303 meters (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Japanese units of measurement; Japanese Wikipedia: Shakkanho (尺貫法); Wikipedia: Shaku (unit)

Yard (yd)

US & ImperialCurrent unit

3 feet or 36 inches, exactly 0.9144 meters. Used for sports fields, fabric and short distances in the US and UK.

Yard descends from the Old English gerd or gyrd, meaning a branch, stave or measuring rod. It first appears in the late seventh-century laws of Ine of Wessex, though there it names a tax unit, the yardland. Around 959 to 963 King Edgar ordered that the measure held at Winchester be used throughout his realm, the earliest record of a prototype. A story that Henry I fixed the yard as the distance from his nose to his thumb is later folklore, and the true origin, whether pace, cubit or waist, remains speculative.

Britain defined the Imperial Standard Yard in 1824 as the distance between two marks on a brass rod at 62 degrees Fahrenheit. A fire in 1834 damaged the standard, a replacement was made in 1845, and the Weights and Measures Act 1855 recognized it. The 1959 international agreement then fixed the yard at exactly 0.9144 meter. Today it measures American and Canadian football fields, association football pitches and cricket pitches, appears on UK road signs for short distances, and is still used to sell fabric in the US and UK.

1 yard = 0.9144 meters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Yard; Wikipedia: Inch; NIST Guide to the SI, Appendix B.8: conversion factors

Related conversions

See all length units.