The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1908-11-06
HOW THE JAPANESE
USED TO TELL llME
by UME TSUDA


of science and commerce and West
srn arts, dates from the opening OF
the country 10 the world, the revolu-
ton which restored the Emperor 10
! his power, and the establishment OF
| the present government, all OF which
has taken place within fifty years.
Now the gun booms out the noon
hour in Tokyo from the Imperial
Observatory, and every one takes
out his watch 10 look at the time.
Even the students have watches.
many of them of American make,
and clocks are found in all the viii
lagos, even way up in mountain dis
! tricts.
Yet less than forty years ago time
vas told in a very curious way. No
one owned anything like a watch,
and the clocks they had were very
odd ones.
Nor was time divided up into
twelve hours and these into minutes.
The length of the hour changed all
the time. according 10 the season OF
the year.
The rising and the setting OF the
sun were the two fixed points of time.
and the periods from one to the other
were divided into six hours OF time.
so that an hour in the winter day
was short, Just as il was correspond
ingly long in summer; but tho short
winter hours of the day were made
up by the long hours of the night.
One could work at an hours job on
,inter days and cheat time out OF
hirty minutes or more, but II had
be made up in the summer, for an
our then was about our present two
ours and half Only in September
md in March did the hours get even
with themselves, and the sun rose as
1t should at six and set at six, and
each japanese hour was two OF the
present hours.
This is the way II was counted:
IL a. m. was called the 9th hour
OF the morning; 2 a. m. was called
the Sth hour; 4 a. m. was called the
7th hour; 6 q. m. was called the sixth
hour; a. m. was called the 9Th
hour: 10 n. m. was called the 4th
hour; IL p. m. was called the 9th
hour of the afternoon.
And so on again, beginning again
at the ninth hour, and going down
to the fourth hour. Sunset and SUM-
rise were always the sixth hour.
Now notice how odd it seems to
have the hours run backward-just
as they say everything is done op-
posite in Japan.
l asked an old gentleman why the
hours went from nine backward, in
stead of from some number onward.
and he said that the lessening Of the
hours showed that the hours of the
day were getting fewer, and we
should be more likely to use what
remained in a better way. l also
asked him why there was no first,
second and third hour, and the an
swer was that the time was always
made known to the people by the
striking of bells. To strike one or
two might not be heard or noticed,
so they used only the higher number
from four to nine.
Of course there were no clocks
which would regulate themselves in
this way, lengthening the day hour
and shortening the night ones in
summer, and acting vice versa in win
ter. Such wonderful clocks could
not be made, and common people only
listened for the bells which rang
out in the castle grounds Of the
noblemen, where we're clustered the
homes of the retainers, or in the big
city OF Yedo (now Tokyo; and in
the country there were fixed places
where the timekeepers rang out the
hour so that it was heard throughout
all the streets. These watcbmen pos
sessed the only clocks that existed.
In a shallow box, full OF ashes, was
packed in long and narrow coils a
substance called mako, which looks
quite like fine sawdust, aud Is made
from cedar-wood and the dried leaves
OF a plant IL burns with a fine
fragrance like incense. This powder
like substance has the quality OF
burning very slowly and evenly. It
lighted at one end OF the long coil,
It would slowly burn all day like a
fuse, and would always take the same
length OF time TO burn a certain
length.
The timekeeper had a measure
which told him how long the day
must be at each season, and the
length of the coil, and he would di-
vISe the whole length of mako into
ak divisions for the six hours from
sunrise TO sunset. A different length
was used for the night hours.
Although the sun changes each
day, the measure was not changed
daily, but only once in fifteen days.
which was quite neaf enough to keep
up with the real sunset and sunrise
time for ordinary purposes.
In some places water clocks were
used, formed by the dripping o. drops
OF water into a vessel. When the
water got to certain height IL
marked the hour: but. as in the case
of the fire clock, the measure for