Time & Calendars Museum, Nara-Shi

The result of a plan to tie in with the Silk Road Exposition (1988) and the revitalization of Nara-machi, this specialty museum focuses on various devices which men have produced to mark time. For example, the then Crown Prince Emperor Tenchi [r. 661-671] instituted at the Asuka site a water lock, a Chinese invention from the Han Dynasty. The collection consists of around 4,000 pieces (astronomical data, various timepieces, sundials, mechanisms for measuring time and even a Nara calendar). Typically 200-300 items are on view at one time.