Anna Sherman

'The Myriad Year Clock has six faces. It shows not just the twenty-four hour day of modern time, and the twelve-hour day of Edo time, but the phases of the moon, the twenty-four Japanese seasons and the days of the week. Another dial shows the ancient Chinese system, which combined the Zodiac animals and the elements: wood, fire, earth, metal and water.'

This is not a guidebook. This is not a history book. This is not story of a journey from A to B. What it is is a meditation on the nature of show more time and history that uses Anna Sherman's quest to seek out the old Bells of Time that were used in the past, in time before clocks and watches were commonplace, to mark the passing of the hours in the various districts of old Tokyo. It is purposefully meandering, shamelessly relishing, for example, the small details of her friend Daibo taking time to make the perfect cup of coffee. Indeed, Daibo's coffee shop becomes a focal point, the calm centre point to which Sherman can return to make sense of what she discovers.

The book explores the sweeping history of the city and the nation, but Sherman is not afraid to remind us that she, as a Westerner living in Tokyo for a brief time, is an outsider, someone who tries to learn the language and customs but will never understand it all. It is from this perspective that she writes, and from which we should read. There is a poetic lyricism to her writing that is fitting for the subject, the subtlety of silence or small moments of colour, of birdsong, give us an impression of a truth beyond us, a glimpse of something profoundly beautiful.

This is a book that will frustrate some (I note some of the low-star reviews and can understand their feelings). It is also a book that should be read at least twice; once, just to go with the flow, avoiding the temptation to dip into the notes at the back. A second reading will allow the reader to explore the more than 100 pages of notes and bibliography at the back of the book, to seek out the source material. For there is a huge amount of depth to this; the author has done a massive amount of research and the bibliography itself will see me happily exploring more and more of the resources for years to come.

A wonderful treasure trove, a beautiful meditation on time and identity, and at one and the same time an elegy for a lost city and a hymn to the modern. Let it wash over you, take joy in the quiet observations. This is a wonder of a book and is already a welcome addition to my bookshelf, to be visited again and again. 5 stars. show less

Jesuit missionaries brought the first clocks to Japan; they were objects of wonder. Unlike temple bells, which sounded at intervals, the new clocks registered permanent time. The ceaseless and visible movement of the clocks' hands was something altogether new. The idea of time itself changed: it became mechanical.

While Anna Sherman was living in Japan, she became interested in the huge bells that used to sound the time in Tokyo. She visits each of the extant bells and the sites of those that show more no longer exist, and describes the history of the bells and the areas of Tokyo that they are found in.

Her quest to visit all the bells is interspersed by visits to an old coffee-shop, where she talks to the owner and various customers, and she was in Tokyo at the time of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami so there is a section about the panic when no-one knew how badly the Fukoshima disaster would affect the rest of the country.

It's a loosely structured book, but I enjoyed it. show less

This odd little book consists of the author's memoirs as she searched for the bells that marked the hours for residents of Edo (now Tokyo). She describes some of what she sees on her walks around the city but mostly the encounters with people she met on her search. It's not really a travel book. It doesn't describe neighborhoods in which she walked in enough detail or broad enough strokes to consider it such. It's not history. It is too focused on the present. It's probably more of a memoir, show more but there is a bit more to it than that. I picked this up to read in January for a challenge focusing on lesser known award winning/longlisted books. The attraction lay in the Japanese cultural elements it promised. I finished it in early February and failed to report it then. It was an "okay" book for me, but I do see why the people judging that prize selected it for the longlist. Literary merit does not always equal enjoyment. show less

This is a bit of a meandering book, looking at Japanese/Tokyo history through the lense of the Bells of Time. Its also part memoir, part travel writing. I found it gentle and interesting and enjoyed reading it. It was largely information I'd not come across before, I'd never even heard of the bells of time, so felt like a new take on the city.