Kesurokai

Constructing the European timber frame

At last some video of the European frame going together!

Just some of the roofing timbers are nailed together with nails made on site by our blacksmiths. Nearly all of the frame is held together with wooden pegs that were made as soon as we got to site and dried for several days over the fire in the kitchen. As the timber frame dries it shrinks onto the pegs keeping them really tight in their joints. 

This building also took around four hours for the final construction. The walls went together really quickly, but the roof took a little longer as there were a few joints still to cut. As the head carpenter Cornel was quite new to this method of roofing geometry he wanted to see and measure these final joints before the timbers were cut.

European wood carving

A happy memory from the last night of the project when, after successfully completing both buildings, we partied in the light of the barbecue fire in the European building:

The metalwork for the barbecue was made on site by Manne and Gunther our blacksmiths and the horse's head holding it was made by another of our group, German carver Rahel Schroeder who was also assisted for a while by the wood carver from the Japanese group:

Rahel also carved across the front of the building; a European plane one side, a Japanese plane the other and the inscription Schoen ist wenn altes bleibt wo neues entsteht. We had a long discussion about how best to translate that into English and my favourite version, conveying the emotion rather than a literal meaning, is Beauty is keeping with tradition whilst developing new things.

This was a huge task for such a short project which Rahel managed amazingly well. For the main inscription she trained up two others from our group who had come along because their partners were carpenters; Anna-Katharina Krodel, who is a goldsmith, and Lina Gillefalk who is a buildings conservation specialist.

Blacksmiths' nails

An article about our visit to Japan has just been published in the Japan Times (link here). It is alway a worry that journalists who drop by for a few hours can completely miss the point of an event, but Winnie spent a long time on site chatting to people, did her background research and on the whole it is a lovely article. 

Just one point of correction, the nails made by the blacksmiths definitely weren't just for show. They were for parts of the buildings that will stay assembled. Those the Japanese blacksmith were delicately beautiful with a little curl at the top:

They were used to hold together the side panels - photo below left - a row of them just below the feet of the carpenter in the roof and at head height of those on the ground. However they are not visible when finished - photo below right - as a strengthening piece of wood is slotted in front and held in place with wedges:

 

Yoshida san the blacksmith is in the picture on the right watching Amemiya san with the beautiful hanger he also made to suspend the kettle above the fire. It has a very sweet little mechanism to adjust the height and is for me typical of Japanese understated design aesthetic. 

Those nails made by the European blacksmiths were just a s beautiful in their own way, but larger and more robust because they were destined to hold part of the roof together.

They went in the part where the roof splayed out half way down. Some of these pieces were constructed beforehand and others were assembled in situ:

Manne and Gunther, the European blacksmiths, also made a beautiful hanging barbecue and I'll post some pictures of that separately. (After a break to mark some student work - that's what pays the bills! - I am back processing Kesurokai video and currently studying footage of the construction of the European frame. More about that to follow later in the week.)

Finished!

Yesterday we raised both buildings; firstly the Japanese tea house, then the European Pavilion. Our preparations had been good and both went up with amazing speed and few technical problems. Then we had the formal ceremonies for both buildings before finally having a big party to celebrate.

I will post more pictures and video when I can, but we are moving accommodation today and I don't know when I will next have internet access.

Construction has started

Both the Japanese and the European teams started to construct various parts of their buildings today. To start with each section goes together and is taken apart, adjusted and reconstructed several times until each joint is perfect. Then finally the frames are constructed.

Whilst they have been making good progress, there were worries about getting finished tomorrow so the head carpenters stayed on after the end of the day to do a little more work. It was very atmospheric in the forest after dark with so much insect noise and occasional fireworks as it is a day when Japanese people traditionally celebrate their ancestors (I think!)

So, here is the base for the tea house with, on top at the front one of three upright frames that form the main part of the roof:

and here is one side wall from the European pavillion which was the first to be pegged together:

The pegs were made several days ago and have been drying on a rack above the fire in the kitchen; they start slightly oversize and shrink as they dry. The timber frame is green (unseasoned) so it will shrink onto the pegs as it dries and form really tight joints.

The Japanese use wedges to hold their building together, but I assume the principle is the same, or maybe they just tap them further in as they dry ... I'll ask tomorrow. 

A Japanese axe in the hands of a master craftsman

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:

When carpenters meet...

 

I just received a lovely set of photos from a meeting of the German carpenters a week ago. Their main discussion was about the construction of the European Pavilion; how to divide down the making of it so different groups could work simultaneously on different parts whilst ensuring it would all fit together at the end of the event. They also had a Skype meeting with the Japanese carpenters ... and with myself of course!

There was also the final push to get all the tools that were being shipped in advance to Japan ready to go. Whilst many new ones have been given by some wonderful sponsors, the others are fine old tools that have been bought for or given to the project. Many of these were in need of a little cleaning and sharpening first and by the looks of the pictures the team thoroughly enjoyed the activity.

 

 

 

Blacksmiths

Whilst most of the Kesurokai team are carpenters, we will also be accompanied by two blacksmiths; Manfred Heiser and Gunther Löbach who will make various metal parts needed for the building (nails, barbecue etc). Manfred has been involved in the previous Kesurokai events and can be seen here at the 2007 event working on the top section of the torii with Amemiya san:

 

Gunther originally trained as a carpenter and cartwright before he started metalworking and now runs his own business designing and making knives, ScorpioDesign. Knives are also a passion of mine as my last research project involved re-interpreting the skills of traditional Sheffield knife makers for contemporary craft practitioners, working with my friend, knife maker Grace Horne. When we were chatting on Skype at the weekend Hannes was showing me this knife of Gunther's which is fantastic!

(more about it here)

Gunther is also kindly translating this blog into German for me, which is an epic task, link to follow when we have it sorted.

Pavilion joints

This is for Tom who asked here how the vertical beams connect to the horizontal ones at the corners. The answer is that it is a mortice and tennon joint which goes right through and also holds the two corner pieces together. Very neat!

The two corner pieces are joined by a special kind of dovetail joint which has a very long name in German and Hannes didn't know if it had an English name. He described this joint as a mixture of French and German techniques and the whole building uses a blend of various different European joints. I think that cutting these joints will require a great deal of patience and accuracy and I am really looking forwards to seeing it happen.

(Again this was communicated via the wonders of Skype with Hannes sketching and holding bit of paper up to the camera to explain!)

Preparing tools for Japan

Last weekend a small group of the German carpenters got together to prepare tools for Japan. Quite a few of the tools they are sending out are second hand so they needed cleaning, sharpening, new handles making and so on. From the photos they sent it looks as if they had an enjoyable time - in the picture on the right they are slicing their bread with a cross-cut saw. Jacob's email says that Hannes also cooked them a delicious meal of fried chicken, vegetables and potatoes followed by beer, schnaps and a bonfire! (My thanks to Melisande for the translation.)

Hannes says he now has a very impressive collection of tools all ready to go and I have asked him to send a photograph. The next stage is not so enjoyable, there is a large amount of paperwork to do before they can be shipped. A complete inventory has to be drawn up, each tool valued so the correct duties can be paid, then an inspector will visit and check everything before finally sealing the box.