Label Text:
This clock is a marvel of nineteenth-century mechanical innovation. During the Edo period, the Japanese day was organized into twelve temporal units—six for daytime and six for night—that varied in length according to seasonal changes in sunlight. Japanese clockmakers cleverly adapted the inner workings of European clocks to compensate for these changes, resulting in an exceedingly complicated mechanism consisting of weights and two balances. Though the numbers of the six temporal units were repeated, each unit was assigned a unique zodiac animal. Indeed, the face of this clock is inscribed with both numbers (on the inner ring) and the characters for animals (on the outer ring). Emphasizing the importance of the zodiac animals on a daily basis, the names of the fauna are more prominent than the numbers.
- BB, ed., 2015

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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+1958.34

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