Very rare brass wadokei with side pendulum and engraved dial plate, Japan, Edo period, 19th century Brass wadokei clock of the hashira dokei (hanging clock) type, featuring a side pendulum (missing here) driven by a fork, and an engraved dial. At the top, it is surmounted by a heavy bronze bell with straight sides mounted on a turned brass support, fixed to the overhanging brass top plate. The face consists of a rectangular plate engraved with plant motifs around the 9.5 cm rotating dial, marked in Roman numerals from I to XII at the top and bottom (i.e. 24 hours) and subdivided into ten-minute divisions. The clock features a brass hand to set the alarm, as well as a finely openworked blackened steel fixed hour hand. The weight-driven birdcage movement features two verge escapements and two horizontal pallets. Each wide oscillation of the balance wheel acts alternately on the wheels. It has four-wheel trains, each in brass with solid centers and steel pinions with a large number of teeth. The striking train features a solid brass gear wheel that strikes the hours from 1 to 12 with a vertical hammer, regulated by a four-finned fly. H. clock: 27 cm The box in which the clock was inserted is missing. Wadokei gear calculations often required winding the clock several times during the day. Wall-mounted hashira-dokei provided extra height for the weights to operate. The hashira-dokei were placed on a stand which was then hung on the wall, or on the toko-bashira (square post) next to the tokonoma (alcove) of a Japanese room. Hashira-dokei are actually lantern clocks, and were manufactured from around 1612 to 1873. Some of these earlier clocks (circa 1580-1612) featured standard European 24-hour time dials. This system was common in Spain and Italy, and although these clocks were made by Japanese clockmakers, they would have been used by Jesuit priests who tried unsuccessfully to get the Japanese to accept the standard time system. Some were exported to Europe, but today they are very rare and almost impossible to find.