Hannes is the main organisor of Kesurokai from the European side, having also been responsible for the events in 2005 and 2007 in Germany.
After undertaking a three-year cabinet making apprenticeship, Hannes became a journeyman, traveling away from his home town in Germany both to share his skills and learn new ones. His travels took him to Japan where in 2003 he became the last temple carpenter apprentice to the highly respected craftsman, Sugimura san who was the originator for Kesurokai in Japan. During this period Hannes learned the Japanese language, became accepted by the craft community, and now regularly returns to work there.
Since 2006 he has worked in Germany producing traditional Japanese carpentry with a European influence. This involves small-scale projects such as shōji, traditional Japanese sliding screen doors, and large-scale timber framing projects. He also regularly teaches traditional tool skills and tool sharpening, as well as demonstrating and giving presentations about his work.
He has been working closely with Amemiya san on this year's Chisana Kesurokai since 2008 and you can see pictures of him working with the Japanese team on their web site (in Japanese, unless you look at it via something like Google translate).
Comments