2005 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Historical Research on Technical Characteristics and Social Significance of Clocks
| Project/Area Number |
14023202
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Areas
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Review Section |
Humanities and Social Sciences
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| Research Institution | University of Tokyo |
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Principal Investigator |
HASHIMOTO Takehiko University of Tokyo, RCAST, 先端科学技術研究センター, 教授 (90237941)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
MURATA Junichi University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Arts and Sciencoes, 総合文化研究科, 教授 (40134407)
HIROMATSU Takehi University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Arts and Scienoes, 総合文化研究科, 教授 (80012491)
NAKAMURA Naofumi University of Tokyo, Institute of Social Sciences, 社会科学研究所, 助教授 (60262086)
SUZUKI Jun University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, 人文社会研究科, 助教授 (80242048)
MORISHITA Toru Yamaguchi University, Department of Education, 教育学部, 助教授 (90263748)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2002 – 2005
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| Keywords | clock / Myriad Year Clock / Japanese clock / time |
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| Research Abstract |
(1) On technical characteristics of docks :
On this theme, we have proceeded to compose a report based-on interviews of Mr. Hideo Tsuchiya, Mr. Masaaki Oishi, Mr. Minosuke Kessoku who had conducted in the previous year the work of disassembling and replicating the Myriad Year Clock made by Hisashige Tanaka. Some of the important points perceived by them in the process are as follows :
(a) Some of the wheels inside the Myriad Year Clock connected with the axis by amalgam or used square-shape axis.
(b) Some of the cogs were connected orthogonally each other, or composed by several pins standing on a wheel, or had a small number of teeth
(c) All screws lack interchangeability and are apparently made by hand..
(d) Sexagonal main body is not perfectly symmetrical and has marks to assemble its parts properly.
(e) The lunar model has an error in the number of teeth of the wheel.
In the report of the project, the characteristics including these are explained with the explication of the structure of the clock
Mr. Katsuhiro Sasaki and other investigators compared the structures of the docks indududing the Myriad Year Clock and the one found at the Takcekawa family which automatically displays time accoarding to Japanese seasonal time.
The docks preserved at various museums in Japan are surveyed through correspondence and its results are reported
(2) On social significance of docks :
On this theme, the following reports are made :
(a) Interpretation of wood-cut prints with the image of Japanese clocks preserved at the Seiko Clock Museum.
(b) Clocks in the Meiji and Taisho periods and the accumulation of techniques in the Edo period.
(c) The emergence of the airplane and the change of time consciousness.
(d) The transition of time consciousness at the period of postwar economic rise viewed from women's magazines.
(e) Time and space at farmlands.
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