Japanese joinery

[John Coloccia]

I don't know much about traditional Japanese joinery other than it looks very complex and precise. Okay, maybe I know a tiny bit more than that, but not much Can anyone recommend a reference to learn more about this style of woodworking? I'm curious how they do the layouts and the kind of workflows they use to get everything cut and fit.

[Tony Shea]

I also would love to see some good references for japaneese joinery. maybe some good book recomendations as I'm due for a new one anyway. Is a great question.

[Chris Vandiver]

This book; The Complete Japanese Joinery by Hideo Sato, is a good starting point for some of the basics of Japanese carpentry(woodworking).

[Mike Henderson]

I was doing some research on Japanese joinery a couple of years ago and found several books on it listed on Amazon. I don't remember the names but you should be able to find some books there.

Mike

[Gary Curtis]

I worked for a Japanese corporation for 16 years and lived there for 4. From my office window (a 1-story affair) I watched carpenters build a new home next door.

They start by fabricating the roof on the ground. (this, to keep the rain off their heads) They then loft it into the air with poles, and build the house from under it. Certainly not your balloon frame structure. They do a lot of notched joinery on little more than de-barked poles. And use either pegs or nails for fasteners.

And while staying a Buddhist temple compound near Mt. Fuji, I watched the complete rebuilding of a small temple sutra library. First they completely dismantled the old structure. It was hundreds of years old and worm-eaten.

With all the parts lying on the ground in proper order the whole crew sat there for about a week and by hand fashioned new duplicates for every single component. Each carpenter tackled a few of the parts. Then they burned the old lumber and simply resurrected a new structure in its place. I walked by every day and monitored their progress.

They used no plans. No drawings. No books. They simply took apart the old building like a set of Lincoln Log toys and cloned it. Oh, and they built the roof first on the ground, so at least part of the time was later spent out of the rain. With a good bandsaw, you could do it, now that you know how. I think they call it "Recycling."

[Gary Hodgin]

John,
Amazon has three or four books by Toshio Odate. I'm not an expert on Japanese woodworking but I know this guy is very well respected.
Gary

[Harlan Barnhart]

I have enjoyed following the work of Chris Hall (google "the carpentry way"). I can't make an authoritative judgment on his education but his work is above reproach and seems to my eye to be quite authentic in design, material, method and tooling. One exception might be that he used some power tools. He is currently working on a commissioned table from 15th century China but some of his previous work has been Japanese. He makes and posts elaborate sketch-ups of his work along with commentary explaining the historical significance of many features.

[Raney Nelson]

Part of the problem with researching japanese joinery is how scattered and scarce the information is. There really isn't a singular good source for furniture joinery - or even one that I think merits a strong recommendation unless you're really devoted to collecting all the information you can find. Having said that, here's some possible source info.

The recommendation for Hideo Sato's Complete Japanese Joinery is a good one, but be aware that these are primarily carpentry and timberframe scale joints. This is part of the 'problem' - most of the furniture joinery is adapted somewhat from carpentry joints, but there is not a whole lot of info about furnituremaking joints. Seike's "The Art of Japanese Joinery" is also good, but limited in the same way.

Chris Hall's blog "The Carpentry Way", mentioned above, is as good a source of info as any. Hall is incredibly knowledgeable about both architecture and furnituremaking. He's as authentic, from a tradition standpoint, as I think one will ever find, but he also documents a lot of it (and in English - a major plus if you don't speak japanese).

Odate's Making Shoji book has good information on screenmaking and a joint or two for framing and transoms, but not a whole lot beyond screens. His other book is primarily about tools.

There are a few books on Tansu, most of which have a page or two devoted to joinery, but I wouldn't recommend the expense if the joinery is all you're interested in. If you want one, though, I'd recommend Traditional Japanese Furniture, by Kazuko Koizumi. It's expensive, though, but used copies are fairly plentiful through Amazon.

If I had to pick a single source, though, it would definitely be Domestic Chinese Furniture, by Gustav Ecke. Japanese woodworking has its roots in chinese traditions, and the joinery in this book is what I've seen in a most of the information I've been able to find about japanese joinery for furniture. All the information you're interested in is contained in two pages of drawings, but those two pages really are a goldmine. The book is fairly inexpensive, and available from Tools for Working Wood.

If you're interested in shoji, I actually have a 3 or 4 part writeup of a piece in my blog. If you click the 'projects' link at the very top right of the page, it'll bring up all the posts from the project (which was a year or so back), though it'll be in reverse chronological order so start from the bottom entry.

Sorry there isn't a singular suggestion, but that's my down'n dirty brain dump.

raney

[Pam Niedermayer]

Where Japanese joinery gets really interesting (and western joinery, for that matter) is where three pieces come together, which is where Hideo Sato comes in handy. Even if the joinery illustrated is carpentry oriented, it's instructive and many of the joints are appropriate for furniture. Other than that, it's all pretty much M&T (I consider dovetails a special case M*T), just like western joinery. This is applicable to hand tools only.

Pam

[Derek Cox]

G'Day,
Several have mentioned Chris Hall already and you can follow his work on his blog titled 'The Carpentry Way'. From my perspective it is some of the best woodwork reading on the web. Importantly though, to partly answer your original question regarding references to help learn more, Chris is producing a series of essays on Japanese carpentry. Each volume concludes with a written exam and a practical exam (you must build something) that he will mark before allowing you to progress to the next volume. So far he has Volume one and two available for purchase and another installment is due in a month or two. Details again are on his blog.

Hope this helps

Regards

Derek

[Karl Andersson]

For learning about larger architectural carpentry joints and methods, you can read "The Genius of Japanese Carpentry" by Azby brown - it chronicles the building of a completely new wooden temple using traditional designs and materials. Lots of diagrams of the special joints and photos of the work in progress. The massive size of the wooden members alone is awe-inspiring, let alone the ingenuity of the joinery. Not exactly furinture, but fascinating craftsmanship.

[Frank Drew]

Where Japanese joinery gets really interesting (and western joinery, for that matter) is where three pieces come together, which is where Hideo Sato comes in handy. Even if the joinery illustrated is carpentry oriented, it's instructive and many of the joints are appropriate for furniture. Other than that, it's all pretty much M&T (I consider dovetails a special case M*T), just like western joinery.

Additionally, they do use a lot of interesting locking scarf and lap joints in their carpentry and timber framing.

I thought I was a pretty fair woodworker until I worked with Japanese (and Korean) carpenters; strictly on a hand work basis, they're the best I've ever seen.

[Pam Niedermayer]

Additionally, they do use a lot of interesting locking scarf and lap joints in their carpentry and timber framing...

Yes, indeed, and these, too, seem to be adaptable for furniture.

Pam

[Adam Cherubini]

One of the interesting things about Japan is the constant contradictions embeded in it's culture and history. While advanced in many ways, Japan remained essentially medieval until the 19th c at least. Consequently, I don't believe they ever really had furniture making distinct from general carpentry. Like Medieval European carpenters, Japanese carpenters built the house and everything inside it.

Of course, this paints a picture of a crude and primitive society which Japan was not. Japanese craftsmen unified interiors and exteriors to an extent to which the Western world would not see until the likes of Frank Lloyd Wright, or the Arts and Crafts movement.

So I suspect if you go looking for a distinct Japanese furniture joinery style like we have in the Anglo-American world, you won't find it. For the Japanese, carpentry and furniture may well have been extensions of one another, and pointless to seperate.

One other thing, I was recently looking at some Asian funiture on display in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (adjacent to the Japanese tea room). I was struck by how modern it appeared. It just looked like something you would see in the "Readers' Work" section of FWW magazine. Clean lines, inlay, beautifully proportioned, subtley curving legs, etc etc. Then you look at the plaquard and it say "15th century", which just blows my mind.

So my advice is, if you want to know about medieval european furniture or Japanese furniture, research carpentry. 18th c furniture making really is different. It's different because of the trade guilds, the middle class, the expansionism, and industrialization, none of which were really major players in pre-20th c Japan.

Adam

[John Coloccia]

Thank you all for all the great references and advice!

Adam: You hit the nail on the head. Part of what's intriguing me is how elegant and simple Japanese woodworking can be. I'm really interested in knowing more about it and maybe getting into some of the craftsman's heads so I can incorporate some elements into my own work.