The Whale Sundial (Kujira hidokei) was planned as a commemorative project for the 30th anniversary of the Kochi Minami Rotary Club.
After five years of work, it was built on the south side of the Sakamoto Ryoma Memorial Museum and donated to Kochi City on 31 October 1991.

The name "Whale Sundial" was chosen because whale watching was popular in Ogata Town at the time, and the image of a whale was suitable for a sundial facing the Pacific Ocean.
It is an analemmatic horizontal sundial that has a vertical gnomon and hour markers positioned in an elliptical pattern.
There are no hour lines on the dial, and the time of day is read only on the ellipse.

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