CHAPTER II

JAPANESE CLOCKS

Chinese and Japanese divisions of the day. -- Hours of varying length. -- Setting clocks to length of daylight. -- Curved line dials. -- Numbering hours backwards and strange reasons for same. -- Daily names for sixty day period. -- Japanese clock movements practically Dutch. -- Japanese astronomical clock. -- Decimal numbers very old Chinese. -- Original vertical dials founded on "bamboo stick" of Chinese clepsydra. -- Mathematics and superstition. -- Mysterious disappearance of hours 1, 2, 3. -- Eastern mental attitude towards time. -- Japanese methods of striking hours and half hours Page 25