Why did a Japanese lord in the 16th century reject the gift of a clock?

boing
21

He saw the clock with great admiration and said to the priest, who offered several times to send it to him as a gift: “I do wish very much to have it. However, I do not want it because it would be wasted on me”

6 Likes
22

I don’t know anything about centuries-old Japanese gift-giving culture, but I do know in many societies accepting or giving a gift implies some form of social relationship or obligation, which could get complicated when interacting across cultures with gift items your culture has no context for.

Also, if you’re the shogun, even if your society did start to use western timekeeping, it’s still everyone else who has to keep to your schedule, not the other way around. Any meeting starts when he gets there and ends when he leaves.

2 Likes
23

what denotes “half” past?
if - given a 12 hour sun/ 12 hour dark, would it be 6 hours after sunset?
without timepieces to determine “30 minutes” as half an “hour”, what does “half past dark” mean?
or am i missing a key Burning Man ethos?

24

This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.