Overview

This is the story of the author's apprenticeships with Japanese masters to build five unique and endangered traditional boats. It is part ethnography, part instruction, and part the personal story of a wooden boatbuilder fueled by a passion to preserve a craft tradition on the brink of extinction. Over the course of 17 trips to Japan, Douglas Brooks traveled over 30,000 miles to seek out and interview Japan s elderly master boatbuilders; he built boats with five of them, all in their seventies and eighties, between 1996 and 2010. For most of them, Brooks was their sole and last apprentice. Part I introduces significant aspects of traditional Japanese boatbuilding: design, workshop and tools, wood and materials, joinery and fastenings, propulsion, ceremonies, and the apprenticeship system. Part II details each of his five apprenticeships, concluding with a poignant chapter on Japan s sole remaining traditional shipwright. This fascinating book fills a large and long-standing gap in the literature on Japanese crafts, and will be of interest to boatbuilders, woodworkers, and all those impressed with the marvels of Japanese design and workmanship.

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9781891640636

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Reviews

Japanese Wooden Boatbuilding will effortlessly find a welcome place in so many diverse bookshelves for a delightfully wide ranging list of reasons. At its heart, JWB is unquestionably a must-have for that small cadre of Japanese traditional small craft devotees. Beyond this exclusive audience, wooden boatbuilders of all stripes, woodworkers, furniture makers, professional and amateur Japanologists whether focused on the art, architecture, culture, crafts, history, or language of Japan all will find ample rewards among its pages. Moreover, JWB stands on its own as an engaging narrative as well, proving that author Douglas Brooks has mastered two challenging and elusive crafts: writing in English and boat building in Japanese. On a par with the classic Japanese Country Style, Yoshihiro Takishita s adoring treatise on restoring traditional minka farmhouses, Japanese Wooden Boatbuilding is an insightful and enchanting window into the remarkable macrocosm of Japan and its boatbuilding traditions.--Tom Morse, Writer, Ocean Navigator

On one level, Japanese Wooden Boatbuilding is a how it's done book. On another, it's a memoir full of complicated, brilliant, well wrought characters plus plenty of narrative and local color. It's also a travel adventure book and a story about an American couple who grew and learned as they entered and took part in a world almost lost.--Hilary Russell Messing about in Boats, April 2016

Author Information

Author Douglas Brooks is a boatbuilder, writer, and researcher specializing in the construction of traditional wooden boats for museums and private clients. Since 1990 he has been researching traditional Japanese boatbuilding, focusing on the techniques and design secrets of the craft. In 2014, Brooks received the Rare Craft Fellowship Award from the American Craft Council. To learn more about his research, visit: www.douglasbrooksboatbuilding.com

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