Time flows slowly on the island of Osaki-Shimojima, part of an archipelago off the southern coast of Japan’s main island, Honshu. Elderly fishermen pass the days on its stone embankments, trying to catch fish in the Seto Inland Sea. Some of the wooden buildings have stood along the narrow alleys of the island’s historical district of Mitarai for 250 years; most have roofs of the same traditional clay tiles, called kawara.
One of those buildings houses the Shinko Clock Shop, widely believed to be among the oldest clock and watch shops in Japan — although no one, not even the owners, knows precisely when it began to sell timepieces
“We cannot confirm accurately whether it’s the oldest, but it’s likely one of the oldest,” said Mitsushi Matsuura, 45, the fifth generation of his family to sell clocks.
Based on the dates on a local grave marker and some family documents, the Matsuuras say they believe the shop was established in the late 1700s to sell rice and other foodstuffs, then started to sell clocks sometime during the Meiji era (1868-1912).
Now, Mr. Matsuura and his father, Keiichi, 79, handle sales and repairs, with family members taking on the accounting and other tasks.
Standing outside of the shop, which has a large red-case Seiko clock mounted high above the door, what first struck me was the eerie quiet — we certainly were not in Tokyo any more. (The round trip would take more than 16 hours in trains, a bus and a small boat.)
But Masako Takigawa, the head of tourism promotion for Kure — the city that includes the 17.5-square-kilometer (6.7-square-mile) island and its 1,600 inhabitants — wrote in an email that it was not always this quiet.
“Mitarai was a port town that flourished as a strategic point on the Seto Inland Sea from the mid-Edo period onward,” she wrote, referring to the mid-17th and early 18th centuries.
Local residents still routinely greet one another as they pass in the street. The district’s buildings, especially the vacant ones, are decorated with hanging bamboo vases that residents regularly fill with colorful seasonal flowers.
Tourists, mostly from elsewhere in Japan, come to visit an old stone pier, a lighthouse and several historic buildings, including a brothel where nearly 100 women lived and worked, and the Otomeza Theater, which has tatami floors and was built in 1937. There also is a charming guesthouse operating in a 110-year-old building that once was a hospital; its owner sells kakigori, a Japanese shaved ice dessert, flavored with the citrus fruits whose cultivation supports the area’s economy.
It is all so idyllic that scenes were filmed in Mitarai for “Drive My Car,” winner of the 2022 Oscar for international feature film and the first Japanese film ever nominated for best picture.
A Showpiece
The Shinko Clock Shop also is one of the island’s attractions. As I sat with the Matsuuras inside the shop, several people, mostly Japanese tourists, stopped to look at the window display of clocks and optical instruments, and some cyclists, identified by their small Taiwanese flags, rode by.
“Today is busy because it’s the weekend, but on a weekday it’s usually very quiet,” the younger Mr. Matsuura said.
The sales area occupies a narrow space of about 60 square meters (645 square feet) near the entrance; the repairs area, up one step and running all the way from the front to the rear of the shop, has a work surface facing the street to take advantage of the sunlight for precision work.
The wood-covered earthen walls are decorated with scores of clocks, some of which are for sale and some just for display, and advertising posters, including one from the Swiss watch company Tavannes dated 1910.
Also on the wall is a framed black and white photograph that the Matsuuras believe was taken in 1917. It shows some of their kimono-clad ancestors — including Keiichi Matsuura’s father as a young child — standing in front of the shop, which has occupied the same site since its establishment (the current building was constructed in 1919).
The shop’s longtime showpiece, which stands against the back wall, is a 6.5-foot grandfather clock made by the Ansonia Clock Company. Engraving on its parts indicates that the clock was manufactured in New York City, where the Connecticut company moved in 1878 (the business closed in 2006).
The grandfather clock was purchased by Mitsujiro Matsuura — Keiichi’s great-grandfather, the first member of the family to sell clocks and watches. As it was very expensive, Keiichi Matsuura said, he sold a house he owned to get the money.
“The shop displayed the big clock in the window so all the villagers could see the time,” he added — and it still works today, as long as it is wound once a week.
‘We Do Not Judge’
Why did their ancestor begin selling timepieces? “They were cutting-edge at the time,” Mitsushi Matsuura said. “They were a new technology like the smartphone is today, for example.”
He said he believed the shop began with clocks and later added watches from countries such as Switzerland and the United States to its stock.
While the shop now sells new mechanical and quartz wristwatches, primarily Seikos; table clocks; and optical instruments such as loupes — and it assembles eyeglasses, using lenses from suppliers — most of its revenue comes from repairs of vintage timepieces.
“We accept all kinds of watches,” Mr. Matsuura said. “We do not judge whether or not to accept watch repairs based on the manufacturer, brand or price of the watch, but only on whether or not we can handle the repair.”
“Many of the watches we receive for repair are watches with precious memories, or left behind by loved ones,” he added. “Some customers shed tears just seeing us opening the back of their watches to see if they can be repaired, as they had been told that their watches could not be repaired because they were too old or ‘no brand’.”
Handwritten information about the watch and usage instructions are included every time a watch repair is returned to the customer. “Elderly people don’t always feel comfortable reading typed instructions,” Mitsushi Matsuura said, displaying a three-page letter as an example of the practice. “We also attach information on manufacturers, brands and models, as much as we can find out.
“By knowing information such as when the watch was made, by whom, and by what manufacturer, we are able to remember not only the value of the watch itself, but also the feelings of the owner who purchased it, and this helps the owner become more attached to the watch.”
The shop is open daily from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and is closed only when the men attend a community event or have other business. The elder Mr. Matsuura lives in the shop’s building (he can enter his house through a sliding door in the shop’s back wall), and his son lives next door.
And what about the shop’s future? Mitsushi Matsuura said they had not been thinking about who would take it over and how, “as it is uncertain how the industry will change with the future environment and the times. Also, it would be meaningless to force people to take over in a bad situation and ruin their lives for the sake of the shop.”
He actually left the island to study and work for a few years as an engineer in Hiroshima, but returned in 2012 to help his father with the shop. “However, I would like to make sure that if someone wants to take over the business, they will be in a position to do so.”
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