Training for Mud: Apprenticing Japan’s Plaster Craft
Mine has turned into a very unusual apprenticeship. When I returned in Spring of 2016, I thought I would be here for two years. My second year in, I realized I must stay on at least another three years to feel satisfied. It takes at least five years to gain solid competency around producing the right brown coat under any circumstances; that is, the layer before the thin finish, which must be applied as perfectly as the finish will be. And so, I found myself a visa – a three-year PhD program at Kyoto Institute of Technology (KIT). Three days a week I train, three days a week I am at school. Read More …
Kez in the Classroom
by David Ballantine (adapted from The Wooden Post, vol 14, December 2019). Future of Mentoring: “in the Classroom”One of the best ways we can advance the Kez movement beyond our current programs is for our membership to actively volunteer their time to help foster outreach programs with youth. Even though the trends are running against the future of wood shops in high schools, there are definitely schools bucking this trend and looking for ways to connect with expertise to expand their programs. Several programs of this type are already being done in Japan, where an expert in joinery helps by…
Kezuroukai Historical Architectural Structures
Friday morning at 08:00…a small group of people meeting in a parking lot…who’d have guessed that we could possibly travel 150 miles in a loop around the entire San Francisco Bay in one short day…we all introduced ourselves, and I let them know the itinerary and what to expect. The day ended up being a revelation on the perseverance and persistence of early Japanese craftsmen. Read More …
Story of the Blacksmiths – Focused on a single wide blade
The flurry of movement and the excitement of the competition usually hides something quite different which has been evolving over time and is far from center stage. Many of those who participated in the 2019 El Cerrito event probably saw the wide plane blade sitting on Sayuri’s sales table all day Saturday. What they didn’t know was that the buzz around that blade was centered on one man who had made the long journey to California to demonstrate his blacksmithing skills along with two other smiths. His journey actually started in his garage several years earlier when he decided to fool around with knives and Damascus steel. Read More …
Why Japanese Joinery is Designed to be Disassembled
Exploring the resilience of traditional Japanese structures. The question of what techniques were employed early-on to allow the evolution and systematic improvements to the joinery which eventually would resist jolts and winds, for tens of centuries. Read More …
Interview with Jon Stollenmeyer & Kohei Yamamoto
Two travelers coming from Japan to share with us their experiences working on traditional buildings with traditional tools and materials. But that is not all they are involved with. There is a growing movement in Japan to push for recognition of the traditional building arts as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage (of Humanity). That effort is outlined in the following interview conducted by Yann Giguère. Read More …
Dentoh-Isan Preservation of Traditional Building Methods in Japan
When the nation of Japan viewed the devastation and clean-up efforts after the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, many people came to recognize the necessity to reduce non-recyclable content in construction. Nearly 100% of new construction materials could NOT be recycled. Whereas the traditional buildings, with tatami, wood and tile, could be quickly cleaned-up without environmental costs, the plastic and chemical remains of the modern construction needed to be carefully filtered and sequestered to protect the environment from becoming polluted with complex chemical residues which mix together producing unknown future effects. The cost of the clean-up after disasters like Earthquakes has become part of the conversation in Japan centering around how to bring about healthy sustainable environments. Read More …
Mastering a Craft
When I started thinking about writing an article for this newsletter, I had so many ideas to explore, but the topic that seemed to have to most potential to make a difference for the community was the frame of mind that we bring to our work.
I have been working with wood and metal since I took my first shop classes in junior high school. I was always fascinated by the process of turning a raw piece of material into a desired object. I have had the pleasure of learning from some excellent teachers and co-workers, and have applied that learning for about 40 years Read More …
Background on the Hakone Garden Teahouse, Shogetsu-an
Because of the authentic buildings, the Gardens hold an important historic place in Japanese American cultural exchange. In 1980, the City of Saratoga (which owns the Hakone Estate) invested in renovating the Garden guesthouse and converted the rooms into two rooms suitable for teaching tea ceremony. Beginning in 1981 the rooms began to be used as teaching locations for San Francisco Bay Area tea schools. Three days a week classes are convened in one or more of the four tea rooms now located at Hakone. Read More …
Shogetsu-an Tea House and Garden Project Update
In February 2018, eleven volunteers from our organization helped the Hakone Foundation build the first formal public tea garden in the San Francisco Bay area. For the past twelve years tea organizations have used the re-located Japanese tea house in the garden for yearly gatherings, so the history of its creation and relocation is well known to those who study tea ceremony. Hakone is a public garden and each year more than 15,000 people visit the traditional stroll garden built 100 years ago as a private estate–now run by the non-profit Hakone Foundation, set up to preserve the garden and spread the Japanese traditional culture in Saratoga. Read More …