Bell of Time

The 時の鐘 (Toki no Kane, 'Bell of Time') is a wooden bell tower dating to 1669, located in the old Shitamachi district of Tokyo near Ueno. During the Edo period, its bell rang multiple times daily to signal the hours to residents of the shogunate's sprawling capital — an essential public service in an age without private clocks. Today the modest structure stands as a quiet remnant of Edo-era urban life, easy to overlook amid the surrounding city but significant as one of Tokyo's few surviving timekeeping landmarks.