3 ms·

You have to scroll down to the "Temporal hours" section to finally get to the reason why the clocks need to be constructed differently: https://en.wikipedia.or

You have to scroll down to the "Temporal hours" section to finally get to the reason why the clocks need to be constructed differently: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_clock#Temporal_hours https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_clock#Temporal_hours Japanese traditional timekeeping practices required the use of unequal time units: six daytime units from local sunrise to local sunset, and six night-time units from sunset to sunrise. As such, Japanese timekeepers varied with the seasons...

karmakaze 5y ago
Yes, by far the most interesting part, but WTF? > The typical clock had six numbered hours from nine to four, which counted backwards from noon until midnight; the hour numbers one, two and three were not used in Japan for religious reasons, because these numbers of strokes were used by Buddhists to call to prayer. The count ran backwards because the earliest Japanese artificial timekeepers used the burning of incense to count down the time. Dawn and dusk were therefore both marked as the sixth hour in the Japanese timekeeping system. In addition to the numbered temporal hours, each hour was assigned a sign from the Japanese zodiac. Starting at dawn, the six daytime hours were: Zodiac symbol Numeral Rabbit 卯六 6 sunrise Dragon 辰五 5 morning Snake 巳四 4 morning Horse 午九 9 noon Goat 未八 8 afternoon Monkey 申七 7 afternoon > From dusk, the six nighttime hours were: Zodiac symbol Numeral Rooster 酉六 6 sunset Dog 戌五 5 evening Pig 亥四 4 evening Rat 子九 9 midnight Ox 丑八 8 before dawn Tiger 寅七 7 before dawn It's weird that there's the daytime and nighttime hours are counted with the same repeating numbers as in 12h time. The page still doesn't explain why the hours are different lengths. Did the incense burn equal lengths at different rates?

karmakaze 5y ago

Yes, by far the most interesting part, but WTF? > The typical clock had six numbered hours from nine to four, which counted backwards from noon until midnight; the hour numbers one, two and three were not used in Japan for religious reasons, because these numbers of strokes were used by Buddhists to call to prayer. The count ran backwards because the earliest Japanese artificial timekeepers used the burning of incense to count down the time. Dawn and dusk were therefore both marked as the sixth hour in the Japanese timekeeping system. In addition to the numbered temporal hours, each hour was assigned a sign from the Japanese zodiac. Starting at dawn, the six daytime hours were: Zodiac symbol Numeral Rabbit 卯六 6 sunrise Dragon 辰五 5 morning Snake 巳四 4 morning Horse 午九 9 noon Goat 未八 8 afternoon Monkey 申七 7 afternoon > From dusk, the six nighttime hours were: Zodiac symbol Numeral Rooster 酉六 6 sunset Dog 戌五 5 evening Pig 亥四 4 evening Rat 子九 9 midnight Ox 丑八 8 before dawn Tiger 寅七 7 before dawn It's weird that there's the daytime and nighttime hours are counted with the same repeating numbers as in 12h time. The page still doesn't explain why the hours are different lengths. Did the incense burn equal lengths at different rates?