How We Rebuilt One Night in 1858 Tokyo, Hour by Hour | Making of a Real-Time Film

▶ FREE to download: the whole night, every source, and a free 14-page almanac you can print: https://eostrata.com/edo-1858 ▶ Watch the full film, all 11 hours 50 minutes of that night in real time:    • Drift Through One Real Night in Edo, 1858 ...   ▶ The Kalends: one ancient date each morning, free: https://eostrata.com/today On 8 July 1858 the river opened at Ryōgoku. We made an eleven-hour film of that night, in real time, by boat from Senju to Shinagawa. This is how: the date in the old calendar, the hours that stretched with the daylight, the sky computed for that night, a river rebuilt from an 1880s survey, the witnesses we used, the fireworks we could not confirm, the sound, and the 1,278,000 frames. Along the way: Bashō stepping ashore at Senju in 1689, Perry's squadron off Uraga five years to the day before our night, the new gun batteries off Shinagawa, and the treaty signed three weeks later. Chapters 0:00 Opening 2:44 I · The date 5:28 II · The hours 8:21 III · The sky 11:36 IV · The river 14:57 V · The witnesses 17:09 VI · The fireworks 19:26 VII · The sound 21:12 VIII · The frames 23:09 IX · What we could not know 24:49 X · First light What we could not know The fireworks were scheduled. We found no cancellation in the sources we checked, and no surviving account that confirms the 1858 display. Ours is a reconstruction. We have not found a weather record for this night; we have drawn it clear. Credits Narration: Christopher (ElevenLabs voice). Music: Frédéric Chopin, Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 65, III. Largo, performed by Yeonjin Kim (cello) and Christopher Harding (piano), Musopen, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; slowed and worn by us. Maps: 農研機構農業環境研究部門 歴史的農業環境閲覧システム（迅速測図, CC BY 2.1 JP）を加工して作成 · Edo kiriezu, National Diet Library, public domain · GSI 明治期の低湿地. Prints: Hiroshige, One Hundred Famous Views of Edo no. 98, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, CC0 · no. 78, Brooklyn Museum, public domain. Photograph: Fort du Sud à Yedo (the Shinagawa batteries), attributed to Antoine Fauchery, 1861, Rijksmuseum, CC0. Texts quoted: Matsuo Bashō, Oku no hosomichi (our translation); Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan (1856); the 1858 Treaty of Amity and Commerce, in Malloy, Treaties (1910). Sound (the film's own soundscape): Hour bells synthesised from Ōkuma's measurements of Edo temple bells. Timbre reference: "BELLLrg_Temple_Japan_Tokyo_Zojo_Ji_Bell_Tower_VerdiMic_260101" by Echograin, freesound.org/s/843521, CC BY 4.0 Water: "Gentle lapping waves - Sand Point Beach 6-20-24" by Ambient-X, freesound.org/s/743342, CC BY 4.0 Higurashi: "A song of Higurashi (Japanese cicada), Asao Ward, Kawasaki, 2011-07-17" by Σ64, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 · Niinii-zemi: "A song of Platypleura kaempferi (Japanese cicada), 2011-07-13" by Σ64, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0 · Mole cricket: BioAcoustica, bio.acousti.ca/node/11086, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0 Shakuhachi: "Tamuke" (honkyoku), Julián Elvira, from "Circunferencia Roja" (Alina Records AL153), CC0 · Shamisen: "Japan_Shamisen_Amateur_Improv" by RutgerMuller, freesound.org/s/365262, CC0 Crowds: "230604_2442_FR_CrowdOutdoor" and "240730_220854_FR_Crowd_outdoor" by kevp888 (Kevin Luce), freesound.org/s/690190 and /752092, CC BY 4.0 · madmentalmusic 240256, felix.blume 701181, kyles 405310, Heigh-hoo 13650, CC0 Fireworks: "FIREWORKS 4th" by chripei, freesound.org/s/362267, CC BY 4.0 · "distant fireworks valley echo far mexico city" by jerry.berumen, freesound.org/s/769467, CC BY 4.0 · "220714_2055_FR_DistantFireworks" by kevp888 (Kevin Luce), freesound.org/s/646459, CC BY 4.0 · surrey_film 83292, kangaroovindaloo 260145, CC0 Recordings are cut, filtered, level-set and placed in the scene; no recordist endorses this film.