Kesurokai

Background reading

I feel acutely aware of the cultural differences between Europe and Japan and in preparation for out visit I have been doing some background reading. (I will confess to being a prolific reader and, with Robin being a prolific book-buyer, I have plenty to go at!)

First was Japanese woodworking tools: their tradition, spirit and use by Toshio Odate. This book not only describes the tools in great detail but also gives a wonderful insight into the life of Japanese craftsmen. The author now lives in America but was born in Japan and served an apprenticeship as a traditional sliding-door maker. [ISBN 0-85442-075-4]

Then there is an interlocking trio of books which are actually about pottery rather than wood working but again provide insight into Japanese aesthetics and craftsmanship.

• The Unknown Craftsman by Soetsu Yanagi, the founder of Japan's folkcraft movement, is a classic book looking at the values of art, beauty and handwork. [ISBN 0-87011-352-6]
• Susan Peterson's book Shoji Hamada: a potter's way and work provides a lovely description of the workings of the pottery over the four-month period spent there by the author. [ISBN 0-7136-6772-9]
• Folk art potters of Japan: beyond an anthropology of aesthetics by Brian Moeran is a more scholarly tome, but puts the other two in perspective. It discusses the British origins of the aesthetic ideals of Yanagi and Hamada and how they influenced and indeed changes the lives of Japanese folk art potters. [ISBN 0-7007-1039-6]

I could go on and read the various texts by and about Bernard Leach but I think I might have learned enough about pottery for now!

Profile: Cormac Seekings

Cormac Seekings' passion is the use of roundwood and minimally converted timbers in both framed and notched log carpentry.

Based in Scotland, he is one of the four UK attendees at this years' Kesurokai, inspired by the experience of working with the Japanese carpentry group at the 2007 torii gateway event. Afterwards he will be spending some weeks on a study tour of vernacular Minka. 

The tradition of Minka farmhouses is fertile ground for studying both framed and notched log carpentry, combined in a different way and with a very different perspective on both structure and joinery, from that in northern Europe.

Cormac believes that regional Minka, from cold and humid/cold parts of Japan, can inform aspects of a new vernacular of wooden craft-building in Scotland, and is keen to help develop this as part of his involvement with self-builder assistance and skill training for low impact buildings.

Profile: Hannes Schnelle

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).

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!

Tool list and cutting list

Along with the plans for the Pavilion, the team also drew up their tool list and cutting list for the building.

They need an impressive range of tools, many of which are very different to those used in Japan so will have to be sourced, packed and shipped in advance.

2 Pitsaws                      
10 Side axes
10 Hewing axes
11 Chalk lines
+ Chalk in 2 colours
14 Framing squares
7 Plumb bobs
5 Spirit levels
21 Chisels 1½ inch
7 Chisels 5/8 and ¾ inch
21 Mallets    
14 Frame saws
2 Joiner Planers
7 Rebate Planer 1¼ inch
7 Smoothing Planes
7 Anger Bits - ¾ inch or 20 mm
14 Thrust axes / slicks wide
14 Thrust axes / slicks narrow
7 Carpenters Hammers
42 Pencils
42 Rulers
7 Adzes
4 Two-man-Crosscut-saws Fine
4 Two-man-crosscut-saws Rough
1 Froe
7 Hatchets
5 Drawknives
7 Ripsaws / Crosscut Saws

Their cutting list will go over to Amemiya san so appropriate wood can be felled in advance and some of the hewing done. They will need a total of 88m of timber, 48m will be hewed beforehand by the Japanese team and 40m of which they will convert themselves during the two weeks they are there. They will work in 6 teams of 7 people, with two head carpenters (Hannes & Cornel) organising the plans and layout.

Pavilion plans

Plans for the European pavillion are moving ahead and I have been sent new drawings. Here are a couple of them showing the daisy wheel geometry and a German journeyman for scale:

I think the journeyman is standing next to a barbecue and there is some device for suspending something over the fire next to him. Next time I catch Hannes on Skype I will have to ask about that!

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:

Who's coming?

Today I got an up to date contact list with people who have definitely confirmed they can come to Japan.

At the moment there are 23 of us; 3 from UK (Nicola Wood, Robin Wood and Cormac Seekings), plus 1 Belgian, 2 Swedish, and 16 German. We are the lucky ones who can underwrite our own expenses if we don't raise enough money through grants.

Sadly, Petr Růžička's group from Czechoslovakia who would like to come are not as financially secure and must obtain grants before they can book which might make their flights more expensive. The team's hewing power will be greatly depleted if they are not successful in their fund raising.

Once I have had the chance to get in touch with everyone, I will post some details about individual people and what they do.

The European Pavilion

Here are the initial plans for the pavilion which the European group are going to lead with building. 

It will be made using daisy wheel geometry which it is believed was the traditional method used by medieval European carpenters. I am not going to try to explain it myself, but there is an article here (scroll to the bottom) which gives you the basics and I will ask one of the carpenters if they would write me a blog entry too!