Experience history
Step into someone’s day. Discover a different view of history through what you do.
A DAY IN EDO, IN YOUR HANDS
Edo, a day on paper.
Ito’s brother leaves Edo tomorrow. Help her give him a picture of home.
Trace the water below the town, carry paper through rain, and print a sheet with your own hands.
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Your route and the marks of your hands return in the final print.
01 · Tenement · morningHear Ito’s request
02 · Shared water point · morningReconnect the water
03 · Nihonbashi · middayChoose a route in rain
04 · Behind the print shop · afternoonMake your own print
05 · Tenement · eveningGive a parting gift
This fictional journey is set in early nineteenth-century Edo. Characters, dialogue and routes are invented. Sources within the experience explain the water supply and woodblock printing.
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March 44 BCE · Rome · A bakery and the forum’s surroundings
Hearing the republic tremble from a bakery
Set out bread, prepare the shop and hear news at the forum’s edge through a woman excluded from formal political decisions.
Around the third century CE · Late Yayoi period · Yoshinogari, Saga
What remains until the next harvest
Divide a harvest for food, seed and exchange, obtain a vessel and prepare for the next season.
Around the eighth century · A fictional local stage near Samarkand
The blue cloth, into the next hands
Entrusted with his father’s load, Arman heads to a nearby depot, choosing a route and supplies and learning to disclose what the next carrier needs to know.
Around the twelfth century · A fictional settlement near Angkor
Once more, after the rain
Checking canals in his father’s place, Dara learns to look beyond the fields to neighbouring homes and the next rain.
Around 1430 · An Indian Ocean port · A Ming vessel, port warehouse and lodging
Check the words at port and wait for wind
Follow cargo jars, an interpreter’s words, seasonal winds and departure work beneath the expedition’s larger orders.
Around 1455 · Mainz · An early movable-type workshop
Set type is not yet a book
Follow type, a locked forme, a hand press and gathered sheets through a workshop combining printing with handwork.
Around 1600 · Benin City · A workshop in the West African Edo kingdom
From wax pattern to metal form
Follow wax, clay, fire and a cooled casting as a form disappears and survives in another material.
Around 1730 · Dōjima, Osaka · Warehouses, Dōjima market and the canals
A day when the bales stay put
A clerk connects rice samples, receipts, market voices and warehouses through an ordinary day.
Around 1780 · Edo period · Dejima, Nagasaki
Waiting for news at Dejima
A list and a cargo label disagree. Check the delivery, then turn a conversation into a letter.
Around 1810 · A coastal survey · A Japanese coastal village and lodging
Carrying a coastline to the lodging desk
Stretch a cord, wait for stars and compare notes to discover how a walked coast becomes a map.
Around 1830 · Edo · Publishers and workshops in Edo
Before a print reaches the shop
Follow a blank sheet through publishing, carving and printing until it becomes someone’s souvenir.
Around 1840 · A Sea of Japan port · Coastal ports and a trading ship
Sell one cargo and load another
Through warehouse, hold, changing weather and another port, discover cargo as both merchandise and weight.
1872 · Opening of Tomioka Silk Mill · Tomioka, Gunma
Hands that learn to reel silk
Reel silk from cocoons, investigate a break and pass a lesson to someone learning next.
July 1969 · Earth, lunar surface and lunar orbit
All three, back to Earth
Follow what comes after landing with fictional training assistant Ellen, using models to explore spacecraft reunion and the return of all three astronauts.
Take your discoveries further
History detective.
Look past what merely looks true.
Reconnect the timeline.
Investigate what lies between the dates.
Enter an era through its stories
The Betrayal at Honnō-ji
Nobunaga’s Final Four Hours
A Day in Edo
Meet a day without a great event.
Pompeii: The Last Day
Before an ordinary city fell silent.
Sekigahara: A Morning of Decisions
What moved beyond the banners?
Ryōma: Beyond the Shore
Ships, connections and proposals
Napoleon: The Weight of the Crown
From artillery command to an island under guard
Cleopatra: A Queen’s View
Read the harbour, the coin and the end of a dynasty
Titanic: A Night at Sea
Departure, lifeboats, rescue and the inquiry
Qin: Hands Behind an Empire
How did a single empire begin to work?
Heian-kyō: Beyond the Blinds
Objects delivered, words exchanged, lives recorded
Lascaux: Beyond the Lamplight
The voices vanished. The lines remained.
Berlin: The Night the Border Opened
Tonight, the same road goes further