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The Art of Ukiyo-e: ‘Enjoying Edo’s Technology’ with 0.1-Millimeter Precision
Ukiyo-e, a form of art perfected during the Edo period, involved layering over a dozen wooden blocks with different colors, one by one, on the same sheet of paper. The alignment error of these wooden blocks was less than 0.1 millimeters.
Precision was not limited to just art during the Edo period.
Tanaka Shigehisa created something called Banzai Jimeisho. To put it simply, it was a clock, but not just an ordinary one. It was a clock that varied the speed of time progression. Nowadays, one hour is a fixed duration, but in the past, it was different. They divided the time from sunrise to sunset into six equal parts and similarly divided the time from sunset to the next sunrise.
Banzai Jimeisho was a clock that accurately calculated and divided the time into 6 equal parts between sunrise and sunset. It also indicated the month, day of the week, and the positions of the sun and moon. It was even exhibited at the Aichi Expo.
Tanaka Shigehisa went on to create Toshiba.
Regardless, Edo-era science, though niche, has become a form of entertainment even in modern times. Denjiro’s static electricity, for instance. Multiple people holding hands in a circle and experiencing static electricity discharge, followed by instant regret.
Electricity was extremely rare during the Edo period. Static electricity collection, known as Elekiteru. It’s unclear whether it was created by Hiraga Gennai or not. Called Hyaku-nin-obei, several people joined hands in a row with their hands resting on the metal parts of the sliding doors. Hiraga Gennai then sent electricity through them from behind the sliding doors.
Elekiteru was more of a spectacle than a scientific invention.
Japanese Eel in its Best
I bought an eel. Yes, eel is in it’s best in winter, precisely in Feburary.
My grandmother said foods from China is bad, not to select Chinese. She knows everything. Yes, food from China is very dangerous, since Chinese food contains a great amount of harmful chemical substances.
Most Japanese believes eel’s best season is summer. But it’s nonsense. The superstition is born in Edo era.
Eel sellers had been confused in every summer, because eel is not sold in summer. Eel is winter food and deliscous in winter, otherwise it’s not good in summer. Then, an eel seller asked Gennai Hiraga, one of the best worker in Edo, to make eel sold in summer. Gennai said people that eel in summer is good for health then people began to buy and eat in summer. In these days, eel is believed as a summer food and people don’t know eel’s real taste.
Awful Shopper
Two girls sit beside of me.
Hearingly, the one girl bought too many goods a month. She said, the limit of her credit card had been 200 thousand yen, but her shopping activity often reaches to it, then she required the card company to make higher the limit. And she said it’s impossible to pay debt in one time. According to the chat, the company, BTMU, said her to pay debt in one time if she aquire to make hegher the limit.
I was so surprised about her terrible shopping. She buys more than 200 thousand yen with her card every month and makes debt every month. When will the debt be payed off? What is her peyment schedule? And make matters worse, she required the Bank to make the limit higher.
240 thousands people fall in bankruptcy every year, in Japan.
JScript: Line-Broken Text into a Single Line
After converting long text into PDF and then copying it from the PDF to Notepad, you may encounter unwanted line breaks. In such cases, I have created a script that can be useful.
Continue reading JScript: Line-Broken Text into a Single Line