Today I took a break from the building activities and went with the European smiths to visit the Japanese smith's workshop. He is a highly respected sword smith and it was a great honour to both be invited to his workshop and to be allowed to film.
Firstly we went to the special tea house he has behind his workshop to see one of his swords:
Then we went to his workshop where he gave us a demonstration on his forge and gave Manne and Gunther the opportunity to have a go too. Unlike European smiths he works seated, with his feet down in a pit, with his forge one side and power hammer the other. It seems a very efficient way to work and his overalls remain amazingly white!
It was unbelievably hot there; it is at a much lower altitude than our work site so outside the air temperature was very high and exceedingly humid. Added to that was the temperature of the forge and my camera was getting so hot I could hardly hold it.
The video is rather special so it will have to wait for another time, probably until my return to England. Tomorrow it is most likely the Japanese building will be raised and on Sunday the European one - the sites are too close together to raise them both at once although they are both nearly ready I am told.
The timber frames of both buildings are really coming together now all the beams have been hewn and the joints are now being cut. Each piece is carefully marked out first; the Europeans are using a special laying-out floor for this purpose. It has been marked out using traditional daisy-wheel geometry, which is too complex to explain now, but I have it on video and might attempt an explanation of the basics once I get home!
The groups are still working one each others projects so there is a lovely mix of Japanese and European people and tools throughout the site. Some of the joints are amazingly complex and it must take quite some skill to cut them accurately.
Each joint will be tested by putting together each section of the frame on the laying-out floor, then fine adjustments will be made until the whole building has been put together and taken apart in sections many times. Then finally the whole frame will be put together ... at the current rate of work we expect that will be on Sunday for both buildings*.
My video for the day shows the difference between European and Japanese adzes. The European version has become less popular on site since the carpenters have found the Japanese ones (chouna) work superbly well. Here you can see both in action and our host Amemiya san showing one of the European carpenters how to use the chouna:
*Apologies for a lack of photos of the Japanese site. We have been having very heavy rain so large areas of the site have blue tarpaulin covers which make photography impossible. We were warned about the possibility of a typhoon this afternoon and if that had happened we would have had to remove all the tarpaulins, tie everything down and leave the site. Thankfully it did not develop and we could work on!
Many of the timbers are sawn into two down their length and the saws used by the Japanese and European carpenters for the large pieces are radically different. The Europeans use a pit saw, which has a man at each end and in a traditional timber yard would have been used over a pit, hence the name. On site the log is raised above the ground instead, hence the large beam being raised above the ground before hewing.
The Japanese carpenter pictured spent two days leaning to use this saw and became very proficient. At the end of the day he was given it as a gift and was very moved but clearly very pleased with it. In return he gave Jochen who taught him the Japanese equivalent, a Miebiki Oga. This one here is shown being used by our host Amemiya san:
Behind him you can see Erik with a traditional German axe that is used for finishing the beams one they have been hewn. Shortly after this Eric taught Amemiya san how to hew in the traditional European style and it was wonderful to watch the two highly skilled craftsmen together.
No video tonight, our hosts had prepared a special meal on our return which took a while to eat and now we have a table football competition running which I will film and maybe put on tomorrow's blog. Instead here is a final picture of the beautiful Japanese saws.
Today was our first day where we shared work properly with half the Japanese carpenters coming to work on the European pavillion. It was wonderful to watch as they worked out how to communicate with each other through the common language of carpentry with a smattering of English! It was also wonderful to see them teaching each other to use their favourite tools and different techniques.
Highlight of the day was our host, hewing master Amemiya san hewing the other side of the massive beam that Robin and Hannes were working on in yesterday's video. He also started by singing his wonderful mountain song:
We have been very much enjoying the Japanese food and, whilst I have been finding chopsticks challenging, my dexterity is coming along brilliantly. I am not always sure what I am eating and sometimes the fish / shellfish is rather challenging, but there is not much I can't manage. Here's today's lunch, an assortment of fish and vegetables which are served with plain rice.
Another pleasure are the huge peaches which they slice and fetch around as a refreshing afternoon snack for us. It is quite hot and humid here and they are kept cool under running water which is diverted from a nearby stream into the kitchen area next to the forge. They looked a perfect picture under the bamboo guttering in a wooden bucket:
Today was quite rainy so we were thankful for the blue tarpaulins that shelter us ... and that it was still pleasantly warm! Work on the timber frames continued to progress well and some of the craftsmen took the opportunity for some wonderful new experiences.
Firstly, our junior blacksmith, Gunther spent a while working with the Japanese smith who is a well known sword smith from the area. Whilst our translator, Rahel (seen here with our senior blacksmith Manne), understandably struggles with specialist words communication usually transcends words:
Then Robin had a wonderful time learning Japanese style hewing from Hannes. With this being the main beam, which is situated 12 foot up in the air ready for sawing, and its surface being wet and slippery, it did not make an ideal beginners piece but Robin got on wonderfully. However I think he now wants to buy a proper Japanese hewing axe!
To finish some video of them in action along with one of the Japanese carpenters who came to have a play with some European hewing axes and helped Jochen to finish surface one of the beams.
We had another busy day today. For a few days both groups will work on their own projects whilst they settle into their routines. The European group are still hewing beams and they have a large area if plywood on which they are setting out the Daisy wheel geometry to the right on the photograph below. (The site is rather difficult to photograph as it slopes steeply, sorry!)
Danish carpenter Ulrik has been enjoying learning this technique today and I hope to find out more about it from him later in the week. One lovely feature of the work site is the large trough where the carpenters can sharpen their tools. This has water diverted from a nearby stream running through it:
Here is some video available here which shows one of the carpenters sharpening and a panoramic view of the site. At the top is the European work area where the carpenters are busy hewing and under the blue tarpaulins further down is the Japanese work area... more video of this tomorrow!
The journey here took us the best part of 36 hours solid travelling and we arrived at 2am local time. After a much-needed Japanese-style bath and a lie-in until 9am, we were taken to the work site which is about 20 minutes from where we are staying up a twisty mountain road.
The Japanese carpenters have made a good start preparing timbers both for their own tea house and our pavillion and the work site is busy, but well organised. There will be more pictures and maybe some video tomorrow when I am less tired and more organised, but in the mean time here are just a few of our team getting started with some hewing...
Tomorrow morning we shall be leaving for the work site at 7.30am so I must get some sleep!
We arrived late last night and have just had our first day on the work site. More images of that soon but to start with here we all are on arrival in Japan.
| Kesurokai unites European and Japanese master craftsmen, increasing cultural understanding by living and working together, sharing skills, food & conversation. |
