Yorimichi LibraryTHE YORIMICHI LIBRARYSearch

Curated paths / Across subjects

Browse features

From history to the kitchen, from language to technology. Follow the question that interests you across subjects.

To the question index ↓

FOLLOW A THEME ACROSS FIELDS

Curated shelves

Browse all 5 shelves

CURATED SHELF

Who decided how we keep time?

An ittoki, a date, a plan to meet. This shelf explores the conventions behind everyday time at three scales.

All 5 articles on this shelf

CURATED SHELF

Find the conditions for comparison

Color, area, tablespoons, umami. What should you hold equal, and what should you compare? This shelf sharpens your eye for comparison through familiar things.

All 6 articles on this shelf

CURATED SHELF

Explore how information is read

Character order, rules behind patterns, and ways of turning observations into sound. What are we receiving, and how?

All 6 articles on this shelf

CURATED SHELF

A specimen room for tracing movement

The Moon’s orientation, a drop’s bubbles, three hearts. Follow the movements and how the work is shared to see the familiar differently.

All 3 articles on this shelf

CURATED SHELF

Earth & Humanity: A Long Journey

Rocks, life, tools and records. Follow different kinds of evidence from a forming planet to everyday life.

All 7 articles on this shelf

Question index

Choose how you want to explore. Articles are shown 18 at a time.

1–18 of 31 articlesPage 1 of 2

History / Compare

Month 12, day 2—then New Year’s Day. Where did the missing dates go?

The second day of the twelfth month of Meiji 5 in the old calendar and January 1 of Meiji 6 in the new calendar were consecutive days. Expressed in the Gregorian calendar, they are December 31, 1872, and January 1, 1873. What changed abruptly was the way dates were assigned, not the passage of time.

Open the article

Language & culture / Understand the mechanism

Books that open to the right or left: the difference goes beyond the letters

In ordinary vertical Japanese typesetting, characters run downward, lines and pages proceed to the left, and the book is bound on the right. In left-to-right horizontal typesetting, characters run to the right, lines proceed downward, pages proceed to the right, and the book is bound on the left. Check the reading order separately from the movement used to open the cover.

Open the article

History / Compare

When all of Japan says noon, why doesn't the Sun?

12:00 in Japan Standard Time, 12:00 in local mean solar time, and the actual Sun's meridian transit use different references. One degree of longitude corresponds to 4 minutes; the actual transit also depends on the equation of time, which changes with the date.

Open the article

History / Understand the mechanism

Leap years come every four years. So what about 2100?

The Gregorian calendar adds a day every four years, omits that addition in years divisible by 100, and retains it in years divisible by 400. Distributing 97 leap days across 400 years produces a calendar with an average year of 365.2425 days.

Open the article

Technology / Compare

Why does enlarging A4 to A3 take 141%, not 200%?

Enlarging A4 to A3 doubles the area and ideally multiplies the side lengths by √2. The 141% setting, paper dimensions expressed in whole millimeters, and ideal geometric similarity each have different levels of precision and different roles.

Open the article

Language & culture / Understand the mechanism

Why mirrored characters alone do not make readable letterpress text

In a direct transfer from form to paper, character shapes and character positions are reflected together. Viewed straight on with their tops and bottoms aligned, the correct form is the mirror image of the complete line you want to print.

Open the article

Three paths, connected for a reason.

Let the questions you want to compare guide you across subjects.

From an ittoki to the conventions of language and booksFrom a unit that changes with the seasons to words that vary between speakers and directions for reading a page. Examine the conventions of everyday life one by one.
  1. Did an Edo-period “hour” change length between summer and winter?

    For an ittoki, the season and timekeeping system determined its length. Next, place the Japanese word shiasatte on a calendar and compare cases where its meaning differs between speakers. Distinguishing units of time from words that refer to days offers another way to explore shared conventions.

  2. If you agree to meet “shiasatte,” will you arrive on the same day?

    After comparing words and their corresponding dates, explore which way to follow the text and pages in a book. Meaning and page direction are different issues, but both invite attention to the conventions behind familiar ways of reading.

  3. Books that open to the right or left: the difference goes beyond the letters
From the kitchen to comparisons of maps and timeThe same volume, the same area on a sphere, the same day. Change the subject while carrying the question: what has been held equal?
  1. Can light-colored soy sauce contain more salt?

    The connection is the habit of separating visual impressions from the quantity you want to compare. Soy sauce color and map projection are not the same mechanism.

  2. How much truth is there in "big" on a map?

    On the map, we compared regions with the same original area. Next, visit Edo-period timekeeping. Hold the length of a whole day fixed, then divide daytime and nighttime into six parts each: a koku, a traditional unit of time, can stretch or shrink even though its name stays the same.

  3. Did an Edo-period “hour” change length between summer and winter?
From characters to patterns and information from spaceFrom the order people read, to machine decoding, to conversion into something we can hear. Follow the conventions that transmit information while keeping the different processes distinct.
  1. Books that open to the right or left: the difference goes beyond the letters

    Follow the shared question of how information is arranged into the structure of a QR Code. Text typesetting and error correction remain distinct mechanisms.

  2. How much of a QR Code can be damaged before it stops working?

    Trace an expression that reaches your eyes or ears back to its original information and the rules used to transform it. Compare error correction and conversion into sound as distinct processes.

  3. From the "sounds" of space to reading a map.

Still undecided? Leave it to chance.

Choose one of the 31 articles in this library.