Analemmatic dials

Aoyama (Mie Prefecture, Japan)

Reinhold Kriegler from Bremen (Germany) visited the Osaka area in Japan in the spring of 1999. He gave an ample report in the March 2000 issue of the NASS Compendium. He did not tell us, however, about the analemmatic dials he came across. Recently, he kindly sent me his pictures, though, so that you can enjoy them here.

The dial shown above is located in a playgrount at a private school. It was designed by prof. Akio Gotoh from Nara, the president of the Japanese Sundial Society, which was founded in March 2000.
The hour points run from 5 to 19 hr; the multiples of 3 hours have been accentuated. They read civil time. The difference with local time is less than 5 minutes, though. The small posts have hour numbers on top, although they are difficult to see in the picture.
The numbers along the date line indicate the middle of the months: 6-15 (June 15), 7-15 , 5-15, etc. This is the only date line in my collection which has the lengthening and shortening months intermingled at the same side.

Location: 34.7° N, 136.2° E
Design: Akio Gotoh
Inauguration: ?
Photo © Akio Gotoh

Prof. Gotoh showed Reinhold a couple of cute ceramic miniature analemmatic dials. They were designed by Shimitsu Kosho, the former abbot of the famous Todaji temple. The gnomon is a miniature patron saint, as can be found along the roadside in Japan. Note that there are only four positions for the gnomon along the date line. The left one has a compass built in for orienting the dial north.

Photos © Akio Gotoh

The characters above the number 12 and below the date line in the bottom dial mean North and South, respectively, according to our Mah Jongg set. At the left side of the date line are the characters for spring (above) and winter, at right are summer and autumn.

Photos © Reinhold Kriegler

Reinhold also sent me pictures of an analemmatic dial in Higashi Harima.
Don't forget to visit the reflecting dials #1 and #2 in his Bremen residence.