History

Alarm and Calendar Lantern Clock with Double Foliot Balance, Late Edo Period (19th century)

For this exhibition, we are pleased to present the Alarm and Calendar Lantern Clock with Double Foliot Balance from the Seiko Museum Ginza’s collection of approximately 250 rare Wadokei (traditional Japanese clocks).
Crafted during the Late Edo period (19th century), this clock features separate daytime and nighttime foliot balances that switch automatically.
To keep accurate time under Japan’s traditional seasonal time system, the balance weights were adjusted once during each of the 24 seasonal phases (sekki), approximately every two weeks.

Unlike Europe’s fixed-hour system, Japan’s traditional time system required unique adaptations to mechanical clocks, leading to the development of Wadokei.
The technologies and craftsmanship cultivated through their production later contributed to the growth of Japan’s clock and watchmaking industry.

Chushingura Hakkei: Act II, 1865

Created by Utagawa Toyokuni III, an Edo-period ukiyo-e artist, this print is part of Chushingura Hakkei (“Eight Views of Chushingura”), a series based on scenes from Kanadehon Chushingura, one of the most celebrated works in the Kabuki repertoire.
The samurai depicted here delays the clock in his lord’s chamber and secretly sets out to negotiate a reconciliation with the opposing party while his lord sleeps, hoping to prevent a revenge-driven confrontation.

The series was inspired by the popular theme of the Eight Views of Omi, a collection of scenic views around Lake Biwa.
This particular print is associated with the “Evening Bell of Miidera Temple” and is accompanied by a waka poem referring to that famous scene.

Although Wadokei (traditional Japanese clocks) were typically owned only by members of the warrior class and wealthy merchants, their appearance in popular ukiyoe prints such as this suggests that they were widely recognized in Edo-period Japan.

Pocket Watches burned in the Great Kanto Earthquake

In the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, founder Kintaro Hattori lost his factory, his watch shop, and his home to the fire.
More than 1,500 timepieces entrusted to him by customers for repair were also destroyed, but he publicly committed through newspaper advertisements to replace them with new watches of equivalent value, a gesture that won broad respect.
This spirit of “benefiting both self and others” has been carried forward in the Seiko Group.