Making Time

Astronomical Time Measurement in Tokugawa Japan

Nonfiction, History, Asian, Japan, Science & Nature, Science, Other Sciences
Cover of the book Making Time by Yulia Frumer, University of Chicago Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Yulia Frumer ISBN: 9780226524719
Publisher: University of Chicago Press Publication: January 19, 2018
Imprint: University of Chicago Press Language: English
Author: Yulia Frumer
ISBN: 9780226524719
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publication: January 19, 2018
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Language: English

What is time made of? We might balk at such a question, and reply that time is not made of anything—it is an abstract and universal phenomenon. In Making Time, Yulia Frumer upends this assumption, using changes in the conceptualization of time in Japan to show that humans perceive time as constructed and concrete.

In the mid-sixteenth century, when the first mechanical clocks arrived in Japan from Europe, the Japanese found them interesting but useless, because they failed to display time in units that changed their length with the seasons, as was customary in Japan at the time. In 1873, however, the Japanese government adopted the Western equal-hour system as well as Western clocks. Given that Japan carried out this reform during a period of rapid industrial development, it would be easy to assume that time consciousness is inherent to the equal-hour system and a modern lifestyle, but Making Time suggests that punctuality and time-consciousness are equally possible in a society regulated by a variable-hour system, arguing that this reform occurred because the equal-hour system better reflected a new conception of time — as abstract and universal—which had been developed in Japan by a narrow circle of astronomers, who began seeing time differently as a result of their measurement and calculation practices. Over the course of a few short decades this new way of conceptualizing time spread, gradually becoming the only recognized way of treating time.   
 

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

What is time made of? We might balk at such a question, and reply that time is not made of anything—it is an abstract and universal phenomenon. In Making Time, Yulia Frumer upends this assumption, using changes in the conceptualization of time in Japan to show that humans perceive time as constructed and concrete.

In the mid-sixteenth century, when the first mechanical clocks arrived in Japan from Europe, the Japanese found them interesting but useless, because they failed to display time in units that changed their length with the seasons, as was customary in Japan at the time. In 1873, however, the Japanese government adopted the Western equal-hour system as well as Western clocks. Given that Japan carried out this reform during a period of rapid industrial development, it would be easy to assume that time consciousness is inherent to the equal-hour system and a modern lifestyle, but Making Time suggests that punctuality and time-consciousness are equally possible in a society regulated by a variable-hour system, arguing that this reform occurred because the equal-hour system better reflected a new conception of time — as abstract and universal—which had been developed in Japan by a narrow circle of astronomers, who began seeing time differently as a result of their measurement and calculation practices. Over the course of a few short decades this new way of conceptualizing time spread, gradually becoming the only recognized way of treating time.   
 

More books from University of Chicago Press

Cover of the book U.S. Engineering in a Global Economy by Yulia Frumer
Cover of the book Confronting Torture by Yulia Frumer
Cover of the book Class Warfare by Yulia Frumer
Cover of the book Agents and Patients by Yulia Frumer
Cover of the book Sophocles I by Yulia Frumer
Cover of the book Interanimations by Yulia Frumer
Cover of the book Measuring Entrepreneurial Businesses by Yulia Frumer
Cover of the book Stuck in Place by Yulia Frumer
Cover of the book Second Growth by Yulia Frumer
Cover of the book Family Life and School Achievement by Yulia Frumer
Cover of the book Euripides III by Yulia Frumer
Cover of the book The Origins of Cool in Postwar America by Yulia Frumer
Cover of the book Solidarity in Strategy by Yulia Frumer
Cover of the book Schooling Selves by Yulia Frumer
Cover of the book America, Compromised by Yulia Frumer
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy