“Timberwork” ~Tsugite, Japanese Style~

Ichinoe-nanushi-yashiki   Edogawa-ku,Tokyo

Japanese people have built their houses with wood for a long time. The technique of the architecture has developed focused on timber processing and has been handed down by artisans. “Timberwork” is one of the skills, and is connecting pieces of wood together.

“Timberwork” is used when artisans connect short wood to wood, and remove damaged part and connect new wood. Timberwork is generically classified as either male or female. Artisans fix the shape by putting the convex timberwork (male) in the concave timberwork (female).

Although wooden plugs are used in some cases, box nails are not used. We use timberwork with wood saws and chisels by hand. Machinery is not used. “Aritsugi” and “kamatsugi” are typical kinds of timberwork.

However, traditional timberwork as I mentioned is no longer in use, and the number of artisans who can use it has been decreasing. Manual work decreased as Japan started to modernize, and timberwork changed to shape that adapted to be processed by mechanical devices. Therefore, you do not have an opportunity to see traditional timberwork in a Japanese house now.

I made 4 miniature timberworks. I replaced 4 kinds of a lot of timberworks with 3D data. If you download data of complicated timberwork and output in 3D, you can make the picture book of solid models. It is possible to touch timberwork and see the structure.





　　　　


　 　　　　

Koshikakeari

Kama

Kanawa

Shihou-kama