Â鶹Éç

For over 300 years, Japan closed itself to outsiders, developing a remarkable and unique culture.

During its period of isolation, the inhabitants of the city of Edo - later known as Tokyo - relied on its public bells to tell the time.

Anna Sherman tells of her search for the bells of Edo, exploring the city of Tokyo and its inhabitants and the individual and particular relationship of Japanese culture - and the Japanese language - to time, tradition, memory, impermanence and history.

Anna journeys around the city – calling on her friend – the owner of a small, exquisite cafe, who elevates the making and drinking of coffee to an art-form.

She captures a series of hauntingly memorable voices in the labyrinth that is the metropolis of the Japanese capital:

• an aristocrat plays in the sea of ashes left by the Allied firebombing of 1945
• a scientist builds the most accurate clock in the world, a clock that will not lose a second in five billion years.

Omnibus of five parts abridged by Polly Coles.

Read by Amanda Root.

Producer: Clive Brill

A Brill production for Â鶹Éç Radio 4 first broadcast in May 2020.

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