When the shoguns ruled Japan, a day had twelve hours… and in Edo the hours changed with the seasons: a winter daytime hour was much shorter than a summer daytime hour. A night hour was long in winter, and brief in summer.
Then, in 1872, the Emperor Meiji abolished the old clock and brought in timekeeping and the calendars used in the United States and Europe: ‘Hereafter, day and night will be equal.’
No longer did clocks adapt to the seasons, the weather, and the tides. The moon had no connection with the beginning of the month anymore. New Year’s Day fell in mid-winter, not at the beginning of spring. Nothing is the way it should be.
Time was torn away from nature.