Traditional Japanese Roofed Garden Gate Workshops w/ Jay Van Arsdale
For more detail information and registration, please go to Gresham Japanese Garden website.
Jay van Arsdale will lead a rare hands-on workshop in traditional Japanese hand-tool carpentry at the Gresham Japanese Garden in Gresham, Oregon building a roofed entrance gate for their Japanese garden, Tsuru Island.
Jay has worked and taught Japanese hand tooling carpentry in the Bay area since the early 80’s. and presented at numerous national wood working shows. He is the author of “Shoji: How To Design, Build and Install Japanese Screens” (Kodansha, 1986). Jay is one of the founders of Kezurou-kai USA, and a inspirational contributor to Kezurou-kai PDX.
Traditional Japanese Carpentry Fundamentals
2-Day Workshop | Saturday–Sunday, September 19–20: $600
With a Friday night, September 18th overview
This intensive two-day workshop focuses on the essential techniques that form the foundation of Japanese timber framing.
Participants will learn and practice traditional mortise-and-tenon joinery, planing, scribing, layout, and the geometric principles used to create precise, hand-fitted connections. All work is completed using traditional Japanese hand tools.
You Will Learn
• Traditional mortise-and-tenon joinery
• Precision layout and geometry
• Hand planing techniques
• Scribing and fitting joinery
• Japanese hand-tool methods and sharpening concepts
Build a Traditional Japanese Roofed Garden Gate
5-Day Workshop | Saturday–Wednesday, September 19–23: $1,200
With a Friday night, September 18th overview
This immersive workshop begins with two days devoted to mastering the fundamentals of traditional Japanese carpentry, including mortise-and-tenon joinery, layout, geometry, scribing, and precision planing. Participants then spend the remaining three days applying those techniques to build and install the new roofed entrance gate for Tsuru Island at the Gresham Japanese Garden, including the traditional roof framing.
This workshop is designed for intermediate to advanced carpenters who already possess solid woodworking skills and are comfortable working with hand tools.
Participants must provide their own Japanese wood-working tools.