Eambaut — Japanese Clocks. 335 



to the 22nd of March and the 22nd September, respectively, and 

 are called the " middle of spring " and the " middle of autumn.'''' 



We thus see that the vertical lines represent six nearly equi- 

 distant dates. The first line on the left corresponds to the 22nd 

 December, and the others, taken in order, represent 21st January, 

 20th February, 21st March, 21st April, 21st May, 22nd June, 

 22nd July, 23rd August, 23rd September, 22nd October, and 22nd 

 November. In fixing on these dates I have been obliged to take 

 the mean of the dates as given by Hoffman and Williams, as they 

 sometimes differ to the extent of a couple of days, and agree only 

 in one case, that of 22nd December. 



This small ambiguity, however, makes very little matter from 

 our present point of view, the essential point to observe being that 

 the spaces between the lines represent a month approximately ; 

 that the middle line represents the spring equinox, and the last 

 line on the right the summer solstice. The figures in the second 

 row show us that for the second half of the year we return across 

 the dial in the opposite direction, the middle line representing the 

 autumnal equinox, until the first line or the winter solstice is once 

 more reached. 



It is now necessary to give some explanation of the series of 

 curves traced on the dial. 



I have not been able to find any reference to clocks of this kind 

 in any of the books to which I have had access ; and some of the 

 descriptions of the Japanese time-reckoning which I have come 

 across are actually misleading. I think, however, that a study 

 of the curves themselves will furnish us with a key to the principle 

 of their construction, and the explanation to which I have been led 

 appears to me a very simple and satisfactory one. 



This is, perhaps, the place to mention that I have consulted 

 several persons who have been resident for some time in Japan, but 

 none of them has ever seen a clock of this construction in actual 

 use. I have also shown them to a young Japanese gentleman who 

 informs me that he has heard of their being used in rural parts of 

 Japan about twenty or thirty years ago, but that they have been 

 almost completely superseded by clocks made on the European 

 plan, and he was unable to throw any light on the principles 

 underlying them. 



The Chinese divide their days into 12 portions of equal length, 



