The Complete Japanese Joinery

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Anyone who is or contemplates using Japanese handtools — and I strongly suggest that you take a second look at them if you haven’t already as there are a number of them that are superior in their performance to their western counterparts —needs to be familiar with this book. Overview: The Genius of Japanese Carpentry focuses on Japan’s foremost carpenters who combine the timeless past and living present. Brought two copies (one new, one used)as a gift for an arquitect friend who is a rabid fan of woodwork, and for myself, out of curiosity based on prevous rather superficial acquaintance with some aspects of Japanes culture. The whole of temple construction is documented nicely, but ultimately this is but a small window into that world full of tradition, teachings, and at a fascinating intersection of religion, craft, art, labor, and time. Little has been thoroughly documented about the craft of timber construction in Japan (for an English-speaking audience, in particular), especially of the renowned temples, at least one of which can claim an almost unreal lifetime of over 1,000 years.

There is plenty more, no doubt, that is not presented in this book, but it is difficult to find too much fault.Comment on this post, and tell us one reason why you’re excited about adding this book to your collection. It is at this point very clear that the Japanese have achieved nothing short of absolute mastery, as these buildings are an incredible feat of engineering, and the knowledge of wood and total command of simple tools is astonishing. Kyoto was Japan's political and cultural capital for more than a millennium before the dawn of the modern era. She studied at Smith College before receiving her Master of Architecture degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Len Brackett, rigorously trained as a temple carpenter in Kyoto, has spent decades adapting the ancient Japanese design aesthetic to Western needs.

This book is a classic and is a beautifully informative excerpt from the author’s longer and more extensive The Japanese House: A Tradition for Contemporary Architecture which is long out of print. This introduction to Japanese joinery delves into the history and development of Japanese carpentry, and it also reveals many secrets of Japanese joinery. We can all stand to learn something from millennia-old traditions, especially when new products shorten our memory! There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data.A native of New Orleans, he has lived in Japan since 1985 and is currently on the sculpture faculty of Musashino Art University in Tokyo. Since you included some Japanese woodcuts of the carpenters of old, I’m hoping my children will mistake them for comics, and devour the contents of this book. Be prepared to get lost as Brown goes through the assembly process, detailing each step of the erection of the temple, layer by layer, of which there are many. However, Brown does a fine job of attempting the lead the reader through the process of the Japanese carpenter, and of the construction process itself, and it is truly fascinating.