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 Norte by Yulia Frumer
Cover of the book The Life of God (as Told by Himself) by Yulia Frumer
Cover of the book Tough Enough by Yulia Frumer
Cover of the book Communities of Style by Yulia Frumer
Cover of the book Dinner with Darwin by Yulia Frumer
Cover of the book Speaking into the Air by Yulia Frumer
Cover of the book Unsettled Belonging by Yulia Frumer
Cover of the book Tragic Spirits by Yulia Frumer
Cover of the book Punishment and Modern Society by Yulia Frumer
Cover of the book The Supreme Court Review, 2013 by Yulia Frumer
Cover of the book Business Cycles by Yulia Frumer
Cover of the book The Red Atlas by Yulia Frumer
Cover of the book The Nonsense of Kant and Lewis Carroll by Yulia Frumer
Cover of the book Habeas for the Twenty-First Century by Yulia Frumer
Cover of the book The Public Image 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