| Blog series by Jojo | updated 857 days ago | 5 parts | 1329 reads | 55 comments total |
Part 1: Natadera shrine ensemble
The shrines and temples in Japan sport an amazing display of the finest joinery you can imagine. And fine it should be because oftentimes is the only thing keeping them together. In effect, they don’t fall apart because of the work of some of the finest craftsmen our art has ever seen. They withstand hundreds and even thousands of years of outdoors wear and tear in one of the most humid countries in the world while supporting the whole building… in most cases without any nail o...
Part 2: Itsukushima shrine in Miyajima
One of the oldest bits of gospel among the woodworker comunity states that wood and water/humidity doesn’t get along together very well. I woldn’t go as fas as to say that this is not true but… The japanese have a tendency of doing everything in a different way than the rest of the world. Don’t look at this statement as pejorative: I can make it from the knowledge that gives me the fact that I’ve chosen to live here freely because I like this country. In an...
Part 3: Gion Matsuri: the introduction
Today’s and the following posts are not exactly related to a physical Shrine location but closely related to, so I hope you’ll forgive me. Gion is the neighborhood of Kyoto renowned all over the world for it’s famous inhabitants: the geisha. No, they didin’t -and don’t- have sex with the clients (at least not while working as such). Instead of the frivolous image Hollywood has sadly contributed to disseminate, they were -and are- hardworkers. Usually start ...
Part 4: Gion Matsuri: building the hoko
How. The key is how. I guess what people want to know is how. How do they manage to turn 18 ton non-steerable brakeless human-powered beasts in narrow streets? How are they made? How do they stand their own weight plus all the stress from the ride? Because they don’t use fasteners during their construction. Did I already told you so? So, let’s go step by step and let’s start walking before driving. This goes for you Frank: They respect the wood and simply join...
Part 5: Gion Matsuri: hoko construction details
In one of my last posts, the inquisitive Frank asked: .Question time, in the last photo, is that a wedge put through the wheel hub on the axle there?I also notice what appears to be wood joints at the tops of ‘every two spokes’ before the spokes go into the wheel….where the wheel meets at the inside of the mortise and tenon, can you explain?. Hi Frank, I’m sorry for the awful delay in answering your question. I simply don’t know why the days have only 24h. Regarding your ...
Due to my present status of "shopless" woodworker you are not likely to see many -if any- projects here for the time being but, at least, I'll try to contribute giving you my views of the japanese side of woodworking through the old works you can find here all over the place.
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