If you're looking for a book on traditional Japanese building construction then it falls short, too. In this post, you’ll find my review of Azby Brown’s The Genius of Japanese Carpentry, and details for how you can enter to win your own copy.

I have seen hints that Japanese carpentry has, for centuries, mastered this intersection and I would love to learn more about Japanese carpentry and integrate what I learn into my creations! Little has been thoroughly documented about the craft of timber construction in Japan (for an English-speaking audience, in particular), especially of the renowned temples, at least one of which can claim an almost unreal lifetime of over 1,000 years. Overview: The tools, techniques and philosophies that make Japan’s unique woodworking culture so special. Len Brackett, rigorously trained as a temple carpenter in Kyoto, has spent decades adapting the ancient Japanese design aesthetic to Western needs.We are using selectively cut redwood from a restoration forestry project, and all of the work will be done without power tools. They can be applied to projects as large as the buildings for which most of them were originally devised or as small as a sewing box. The context seems to be the building trade, rather than furniture making, though naturally some of the joints can be used in both. We also use them to help detect unauthorized access or activity that violate our terms of service, as well as to analyze site traffic and performance for our own site improvement efforts. Presenting 48 joints, selected from among the several hundred known and used today, this book will please anyone who has ever been moved by the sheer beauty of wood.

Overview: A great book detailing the rich history of Japanese hand tools and their importance in Japanese culture. The author describes in detail, and with numerous architectural plans and drawings, the influence of the anatomy of the Japanese human body on traditional units of measurement and on house construction. Azby Brown is a widely published author and authority on Japanese architecture, design, and environment, whose groundbreaking writings on traditional Japanese carpentry, compact housing, and traditional sustainable practices are recognized as having brought these fields to the awareness of Western designers and the general public. She studied at Smith College before receiving her Master of Architecture degree from the University of Pennsylvania.There are several fascinating layers to the book itself — for one, the simple fact that Brown himself was given permission to follow the construction so closely (especially being a foreigner and outsider). This work is not simply a description of the features of the Japanese house, but "an invitation to probe the possibilities of utilizing this architectural achievement of the Japanese . Kyoto was Japan's political and cultural capital for more than a millennium before the dawn of the modern era. If you're running a script or application, please register or sign in with your developer credentials here.