Kesurokai

道 Dō

If I can get the funding, I shall extend my stay in Japan by 10 days to attend a conference in Tokyo which is about the concept of 道 Dō in ethnography (see below for an explanation).

Rather than having to write a paper there is a strand for artifacts which can include film, and initial enquiries with the conference organisers imply they would be very interested in Kesurokai. So hopefully I will find somewhere to stay for the week between the end of Kesurokai and the beginning of the conference and do a first edit on the video.

The funding forms are due in at the end of the month - I should work on those rather than blogging!

From the Epic 2010 conference web site:

道 Dō captures the sense of individual mastery that is achieved only with the help of a community and its rich heritage. 道 Dō implies a body of knowledge and tradition with an ethic and an aesthetic. 道 Dō is the “path” we have travelled and also the way ahead of us.

道 Dō in ethnography symbolizes the dynamic between ethnography’s internal strengths (its essence, our values, its heritage, its rigor and disciplined approach) and its applications to the world (to enhancement of people’s lives, to innovation, to transformation of industries, to business growth). It is the “path” we have come from but also the way ahead of us.

Profile: Nicola Wood

I guess I should have introduced myself first, but better late than never! I am involved in this project because I am a designer and researcher ... and married to a green woodworker, but more about that later.

My involvement with Kesurokai is primarily as media recorder. I shall be photographing and videoing and, technology permitting, blogging live from Japan during the main event in August. On my return I plan to make a short documentary film about the project.

Now a bit more about my background; I am primarily what is known as a multimedia designer which, roughly speaking, is designing things that appear on a computer, but I also work a great deal with video too. My main area of interest is craft skills; how they are learned, how they are taught and how multimedia can be used to record them and help them pass from one person to another.

Whilst much of my work has been based in the world of academia (I have gained an MA and PhD whilst doing it), it is also immensely practical. I have spent many hours hanging out in craftsmen's workshops observing with my video camera and notebook. I have spent many hours with learners, making and testing learning materials, sketching and annotating to understand what is needed to pass on complex skills.

The origin of all this is my partner, Robin Wood, who is well known both for his traditional turning / green woodworking and his campaigning for Heritage Crafts ... but more of that in another post! Working alongside Robin has both given me a unique insight into craft practices and given me the opportunity to develop my own skills in Scandinavian-style spoon carving with knives and axes.

Bringing all my interests together, we have developed a very successful programme to teach spoon carving as a short course and have been delighted by how many students carry on carving after learning with us. The learning materials I have developed during these courses are available on the internet for those attending courses and will hopefully be made into a book before the end of the year.

There is more about me on my web site, including links to things I have designed, my video on youTube ... and even academic papers!

Profile: Amemiya san

Kunihiro  Amemiya, a highly respected 'hewing master', is the main organiser for Chisana Kesurokai in Japan.

He is an expert in traditional carpentry techniques and runs his own business building and repairing traditional houses. He was involved in the two previous European Kesorokai events, which were his inspiration to bring the European carpenters back to Japan for this event.

He started preparations in August 2008 and a huge amount of work has been done since; preparing the ground, selecting and preparing the timber, organising funding and planning permission. Amemiya san maintains a wonderful photo blog documenting progress on site; in Japanese or English via Google translate (click on 'activities' to see the photos).

The site, in the countryside NE of Kōshū City, Yamanashi Prefecture, is special to him, being near his place of birth, but it was greatly overgrown. The bamboo has now been cleared and an old building there made into a base for the carpenters. If you explore the blog you will find wonderful pictures of them felling trees and processing the timber, and also cooking and eating together.

This is part of what makes Kesurokai so special. Not only do the carpenters work together, sharing their skills, but they also live together, sharing food and conversation. This leads to real insight and understanding of each others' cultures overcoming the language barriers.

To finish, here is some video taken at the 2005 Kesurokai by Robin and edited by myself:

... and there is more video here of Amemiya san using a Japanese saw to cut a trunk into slabs.

Our little barn

My first real experience of timber framing came in October 2008 when Kesurokai organiser Hannes Schnelle came to the UK with Michail Schütte to help Robin build a little barn next to our house for us to use as a log store / bicycle shed.

I had little understanding of what was happening and at first was perplexed. Every day I went into Sheffield to work because Hannes and Michail were living in my home-office. Every day when I returned there was still a large pile of timber in front of the house and no sign of any building! It was a while before I discovered that the frame is not built gradually, but every joint is cut, every part carefully assembled and disassembled, tried and tested, until everything is ready... THEN the whole frame is constructed in one go.

Here's a couple images from the big day and a video I made to record it:

and the finished barn full of logs and bicycles: