Japanese measure of distance, pre-1900?

Question

I know that Japan officially converted to the metric system in 1893, and that a "shaku" is a measure of length approximately equal to a foot.

My question is: what was the Japanese unit of measurement for distance before the kilometre was adopted?

I am asking in the travel category instead of science and math because I think I'll reach more Japanese people this way. Thanks.

Answer 1

The traditional measurement of distance in Japan was called "ri" which is about 3.93 km or 2.44 miles or 12,960 shaku.

Here are few websites that might be helpful for you.

http://www.convert-me.com/en/convert/units/length/length.jri.en.html
http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/dictR.html