Japan and the Japanese

266 JAPAN. A. D. 1G90 1692.
of fire ; to have the oversight of the watch ; to keep a register of
the deaths, births, marriages, arrivals, departures, &c. ; to arrest
criminals, and to punish those of smaller magnitude ; to compose,
if he could, all disputes among the people of his street ; and generally
to be personally answerable for their good behavior. He had
for assistants three lieutenants, the heads of the corporations of
house-owners, a secretary, a treasurer and a messenger. A guard
was kept every night, of three or more house-owners, while the street
was paced by two sentinels, walking from each gate till they met,
and then back. The hours were regularly in the daytime struck
on a bell hung for that purpose on the ascent of the mountains, and
during the night the street-watch indicated them by beating two
sticks together.*
The street officers were held responsible for the offences of the
house-owners ; the house-owners for the offences of their lodgers,
* The Japanese division of time is peculiar.
The day, from the beginning
of morning twilight to the end of evening twilight (so says Siebold, correcting
former statements, which give instead sunrise and sunset), is divided into six
hours, and the night, from the beginning to the end of darkness, into six
other hours. Of course the length of these hours is constantly varying.
Their names (according to Titsingh) are as follows : Kokonots, noon and
midnight ; Yaats, about our two o'clock ; j\~anat$, from four to five; Mouts-
douki, end of the evening and commencement of morning twilight; //.sows,
eight to nine ; Youts, about ten ; and then Kokonots again. Each of these
lours is also subdivided into four parts, thus : Kokonots, noon or midnight ;
Kokonots-fan, quarter past ; Kokonots-fan-souki, half past ; Kokonots-fan-
souki-maye, three quarters past ; Yaats, commencement of second hour ;
Yaats-fan, &c., and so through all the hours.
The hours are struck on bells, Kokonots being indicated by nine strokes,
preceded (as is the case also with all the hours) by three warning strokes,
to call attention, and to indicate that the hour is to be struck, and followed,
after a pause of about a minute and a half, by the strokes for the hour, be-
tween which there is an interval of about fifteen seconds the last, however,
following its .predecessor still more rapidly, to indicate that the hour is
Btruck. Yaats is indicated by eight strokes, JVanats by seven, Mouts-douki
by six, Jtsous by five, and Yoots by four. Much speculation has been reborted
to by the Japanese to explain why they do not employ, to indicate
hours, one, two, and three strokes. The obvious answer seems to be, that
while three strokes have been appropriated as a forewarning, their method of
indicating that the striking is finished would not be available, if one and
two strokes designated the first and second hours.