Catherine's blog

Catherine is now blogging:

https://catherinewoodbrooks.wordpress.com

Guaranteed to be more sensitive, sophisticated and erudite than my blog...

Fishing Culture

Yesterday was my first day off and the folks at Himming NPO were kind enough to offer us the Center's little van for our use.  I am fairly obsessed with Japan's Kei cars, the smallest class of car in a country with very small cars to begin with.  Kei cars are limited to 600cc engines and have cheaper taxes and registration.  They come in vans, cars, pickup trucks and even dump trucks.  I can just shoehorn myself behind the wheel.

We drove up the peninsula along the coast and then inland, visiting an area famous for its terraced rice paddies.  I was taken to this same region two years ago at rice planting.  I got some springtime photos which I posted here.

Catherine san on the edge of a terrace overlooking a hamlet, with Toyama Bay in the background.  If it were clear those amazing mountains would be visible too.

Right near the rice paddies was a temple.  The gatehouse was relatively new.

Don't let moss grow over your head.

Cherry blossoms!  There was still snow on the ground up here.

The main temple building.

A view of the alter.

My shoes at the door of the temple.

Back on the coast we found a fishing village with an art exhibit.

The entire seawall was painted in versions of famous art..

...including Norman Rockwell.

On the last panel was a long portrait showing all the local fishermen.  Have no idea who's idea this way but its really very charming.  We saw Degas, Picasso, Warhol, Klimt, and more represented.

Ah, a kindred spirit.  This is a Kei van very tricked out with a fake VW badge.  The funny thing is these Kei vehicles are less than $10,000 but there is a small group that must easily spend that much or more customizing them.  As much as I like them I have to admit they are not built to last.

A view of Nanoa Bay.

I am really intrigued by these two large bays, with Noto Island in the middle.  Japan does not offer much in the way of sheltered waters for small boat sailing and this strikes me as a small boat paradise.  This trip we drove around Noto Island and I really want to come back here in nice weather. We saw about eight sailing yachts today, which is a pretty remarkable number for Japan.

On our way home down the coast we stopped at this port.  The entrance was this tiny opening under the coast road.  Well protected, but a tight fit.  On the US west coast the little harbors were called dog hole ports, and I'd say this qualifies as one.

Nailing the Bottom

Today I nailed the two middle boards that make up the bottom of the boat.  The bottom is typically called the soko or shiki, but here the rice field boat's bottoms were called chiyou.  I am using typical flat iron edge nails we bought from my friend Shibafuji san in Kochi City.

View of the mortise for an edge-nail.

My Tokyo teacher ran a series of saw cuts through any knots in the plank edges.  This was to "soften" them.  Before assembling the planks, and after all that careful sawing, the edges are pounded with a hammer, a technique called kigoroshi (wood killing).  The idea is to compress the wood fibers so when they expand after the planking has been tightly fastened they make an even tighter seam.

The nails have to be slightly curved

I used a waterproof glue in the seams as well.  Japanese boatbuilders used to use raw lacquer, which had some moderate adhesive properties, but switched to glues.  They don't actually believe the glue holds the boat together (though modern glues might just be strong enough); instead boatbuilders like glue because it keeps the seams from opening up over time.  A closed seam doesn't collect dirt, etc. which can work its way in and cause a leak.  In Japan only OLD boats are caulked, when their seams finally work loose.

Yesterday the Center had a chopstick making event.

Most of the participants were kids, and what was neat was they cooked big bowls of noodles so everyone could use their chopsticks right away.

Today we were visited by a costumed character with a buri, or yellowtail tuna.  This is the fish the City of Himi is famous for.  Offshore are huge trap nets over a mile long for catching yellowtail.

A TV crew filmed a comedic interview.

On a more serious note the exhibit sign for my project was unveiled.

Houses, Boats, and a New Word

I've been walking different routes around town to get to work, mostly to try and find old architecture and any other interesting tidbits.  This style of house/business is new to me: the downstairs looks like a traditional wooden house while the second story is like a fireproof storehouse.  

The copper-clad shutters and the finish plaster which is flaking off, sadly.  The matrix visible underneath is bamboo lashed together in a grid.

The front door is extraordinary, cut from a single plank of wood, a short door set in a larger door.

More typical traditional residential construction, showing the fine white plastered walls with the protective covering of thin clapboards.  Most houses in town have added tin to protect the plaster walls.

A look at the rough plaster hidden behind clapboards, which are less than a 1/4 inch thick.

I've mentioned Japan is safe and theft is rare.  All over town are municipal snow shovels ready for use.

Now to the boat.  Readers of this blog will probably remember earlier discussions of fitting planking by running a series of saws through the seam.  The technique is called suriawase, which means "rub-put together" and also "reconcile." The bottom of this boat has a very slight curvature to it so I need to fit the outer planks at a slight angle.

I wedged their outer edges up slightly.

I marked the proper height taken off my bevel pattern.

When adjusting the seam tighter between passes with the saw, one take great care not to close the seam completely.  If you do the saw can easily wander into the plank.  My students have struggled with this and I came up with an innovation: fit the back of the saw in the seam before tapping the planks to prevent closing the seam completely.  My teachers never had to do this because they had so much experience.

The little wave you see in the seam by the caulking iron was caused because the seam was tight so the saw cut down one plank edge only rather than staying between the planks.

The rubbing motion used in the final passes results in long slivers of sawdust.  I've heard this technique also called surinoko and tosunoku but today I learned in Himi it's called aibazuri.

Ai means to put together; ba is a sawtooth, and zuri is to rub.

Himi, Toyama Prefecture

I've been to Himi before, over a rainy weekend, and was captivated by this tourist image which is all over town.  Was this view for real?  Or is it some telephoto shot exaggerating reality?  I never saw these mountains my first trip.

We arrived in a three-day intermittent snow storm.  We just kind of huddled in our house trying to keep warm.  This is the neighborhood temple in snow.

Yesterday Catherine stopped by the Center for lunch and asked me if I'd seen the view!

We went back to the waterfront at sunset to take photos.  Just spectacular.  It really seems unreal.  These are the Japan Alps, by the way.