Birds and Boatbuilders

I had a very full day yesterday, traveling two hours to Gifu City where my friend Masashi Kutsuwa teaches furniture-making in a program run by Gifu Prefecture.  He's been very interested in the culture of cormorant fishing, which is the major tourist attraction in Gifu City.  He has taken students and studied the basketry used by the fishermen (used to carry their cormorants), and the boats.  Years ago I met Mr. Seichi Nasu, the last builder of cormorant boats.  Since that first meeting I've gone back to see him several times.  He had an apprentice many years ago, a man who then turned to making wooden bathtubs and buckets, but who has recently gone back to boatbuilding, especially since Nasu san, at eighty-two, has become too old to build the large fishing boats.

If you don't feel like reading everything here, you should at least consider scrolling down and seeing the video links I've posted.

I passed through Kyoto Station on my way to Gifu, which is in the mountains on the banks of the Nagara River.

Kyoto Station

Our first stop was the Gifu City boatbuilding workshop.  Here the city has three boatbuilders making the tourist boats that watch the fishermen work.  They had just started a new boat and had the bottom set up for assembly.

Nails have become a real problem for boatbuilders across Japan.  Traditionally in the Gifu region they used a nail with an angled head, but now there are no sources for these nails and the boatbuilders I met yesterday have all taken to pulling them out of derelict boats.  The new nails have squarer shanks and come from temple carpentry.  

Boatbuilders use a very interesting tool to set plank angles, but the city boatshop had a novel take on the old idea.  A piece of plastic mounted on the wooden bar had hash marks for the proper angle of various planks.  Below I show the traditional version.

Here is the fleet which contains the boats the tourists ride on (large and small) as well as a boat containing a men's and women's bathroom, several rescue boats, and in the foreground an actually uakibune, or cormorant fishing boat. Some of the large, white boats were fiberglass, but most of these boats are wood.

A segue here to the furniture school, which enrolls about twenty students in their two-year program.  Tuition is about $5,000 a year with students living in the community.  When I showed up the visiting tool salesman had just arrived, with his large customized van outfitted as a rolling tool store.  These very high quality tools at matching prices.  The lovely inklines were made by a retired temple carpenter.  I loved the drum-like hammer, but at $250 I figured I could leave it on the shelf.

I lectured to the first-year students that evening.

A well-stocked tool store.

Showroom of student work.

The program is trying to encourage students to develop wooden products based on local traditions and needs.  One of last year's graduates is now making geta, or wooden sandals.  The shot above was a project were all the students made very small carving chisels and planes and each had to make a bowl with them.

Then it was upriver to Nasu san's shop.  His former shop was close to the river and the government decided to concretize the river bank, so he built a new shop further uphill.  I liked the fact that he demanded the traditional clay floor in his work area.

He told me he had taken to carving models of his boats to try and work out designs.  Surprisingly crude but he insisted it had been a worthwhile exercise.  

These patterns are Nasu's record of plank angles.  Like all river boat builders I have met in Japan, Nasu has never used drawings.  All dimensions are memorized.

Nasu san is currently building a small boat for ayu fishing.  I am building the same type of boat here in Kameoka, though the two boats look very different.

I have included two videos here of Nasu san using the momojiri and then driving a nail.  The latter is incredibly entertaining, a technique I have seen other boatbuilders use.  Nasu san insists its vital to have a feel for how the nail is driving, because the planking is so thin.  I am convinced there was just an element of fun in this, something to lighten the work in the shop.  This technique is called "uguisu no tani watari," or the "bush warbler flits across the valley."  A poetic name for an intriguing technique.  My friend found another video showing some Tokyo candy-makers doing a similar thing.

Nasu san at work:   http://youtu.be/wv4JBLxyZac

                                http://youtu.be/t2rhHFsTUws

                                http://youtu.be/lOSioPgsDu0

Tokyo candy makers:    http://youtu.be/wOj0xClapC4

The Nagara River in front of Nasu san's house and shop.

From Nasu san's shop we went to Gujou City to see his apprentice, Tajiri san.  He is 52 and now building a new ukaibune fishing boat.  He showed us the traditional tool for setting plank angles.  The boatbuilder simply remembers the horizontal measurement from the line to the stick for each angle.

This pattern is also used to set plank bevels.  Tajiri san learned this technique from Nasu san.

This bottom planking is almost 35 feet long, but amazingly just over an inch thick.  Tajiri san told me he makes the bottom with a slight curve, but that water pressure will flatten the bottom.  He also said the boat will be flexible and this is safer.  The fishermen work standing up and the boats are incredibly narrow for their length.  A flexible boat is less apt to capsize.

I stayed overnight with my friend and this morning we took a look across the river where the six usho (cormorant fishermen) live and keep their fishing boats.  This is an inherited position and technically Gifu's six fishermen are employees of the Imperial Household Agency that administers the royal family.

The cormorants live with their owners.  They work for ten years and are retired, but kept by their owners until they die a natural death.

Cormorant boats have a distinctive foredeck and stern deck.  The fishing is done at night and the boats carry charcoal lanterns to attract the fish (ayu).  The birds wear brass rings around their necks to prevent them from swallowing the larger fish.

Scarf joints in the planking.

Mizunoki Museum of Art

Just some shots of where I am working and what’s going on.  The first photo shows the Mizunoki Museum (http://www.mizunoki-museum.org), connected to the Mizunoki Center for mentally handicapped persons, with 70 residents.  They have been teaching art to their clients for almost fifty years.  

I am building this boat on the first floor, what was once a barber shop, with the living quarters upstairs.  The posts have children’s heights marked on them from the 1960’s.  An exhibit of outsider art from the Center (the Japanese use the European term Art Brut) is being installed on the second floor right now.  Its an incredibly pleasant place with all the old beamwork preserved.

The last photos were taken just down the street, where an elderly woman is displaying her miniature kimono collection.  She cut up her mother’s kimono and sewed little ones.  Westerners are pretty shocked to see hand painted silk kimonos getting cut up here for quilts, etc. but the Japanese find wearing another person’s clothing (especially a dead person) pretty shocking.  That building is the neighborhood culture center.

I’ve been running across the river most days into very old neighborhoods in the foothills east of town.  Its stunning how many traditional homes are over there and I plan to take a run with a pocket camera and get some shots of just what a gorgeous area this is.  I’m also finding great old neighborhoods squirreled away in the developed parts of town.

Ayubune Project

Ayubune Project

April 22nd I arrived in Kameoka, a city of 90,000 located in a valley in the hills to the northwest of Kyoto.  I am here for a month working at the Mizunoki Art Museum.  I will be building an ayubune, a type of small river fishing boat once common in this valley and the Hozugawa, the river that runs through here and to Kyoto.  I came here three years ago to speak at a conference on rural culture and met the director of the museum.  We have been working together since then to put this project together.

View of downtown Kameoka in the background, and the Hozu River.

Mizunoki Museum, housed in a converted commercial building.

In an earlier blog entry I wrote about the Hozugawa Kudari, a white water excursion company that operates from Kameoka, taking tourists on a 10 kilometer ride through white water gorges to the outskirts of Kyoto.  Tourists have been taking this trip for over 100 years and I can say it is well worth it.  The kudari uses fiberglass boats today, built on a traditional model.  They have helped me in researching the design I am building.  Ayubune are named for ayu, a fresh water fish enormously popular throughout Japan.  The overall measurements for my boat come from a fiberglass mould that was taken of a traditional ayubune.  I found one derelict ayubune near the river and recorded construction details.  Our boat will be about eighteen feet long.

Tour boats of the Hozugawa Kudari.

My second day here I was talking with a man near the river and when I mentioned ayubune he told me to get in his truck.  Off we went up the hillside and into a fantastic old neighborhood.  He took me to a friend’s house where there resting, against a traditional fireproof storehouse, was an authentic ayubune.  It is fifteen feet long and the outside of the hull has been covered in fiberglass, but it’s a source for more construction details.  The man said he thought it was 35 years old.

Old ayubune in front of a kura, or fireproof storehouse.

The wooden tour boat.

New fiberglass tour boat being laid up.

Part of the fleet, with the single wooden version on the right.

There was a boatbuilder in Kameoka and just before he died he built the kudari one last wooden tour boat.  The company used it for promotional purposes but does nothing with it now.  These boats take a tremendous beating and maintaining a wooden fleet was too cost prohibitive.  Even the fiberglass boats are retired regularly and most require some patching every season.

I will be building the ayubune until May 22nd.  I am excited to document the process because I think this would be a great design for a beginner to boatbuilding, or someone interested in trying to build a Japanese boat.  These boats, with their wide, plank stems, have a very distinctive look.  The Museum is flying me back July 1st for the opening of an exhibit on the challenges of preserving the craft of boatbuilding.  I am working with the director on the final design of this exhibit.

The Museum is an offshoot of the Mizunoki Center, a residential facility for the mentally handicapped.  They have been teaching art to their clients for almost fifty years, and have developed world renown for this work, which has been exhibited throughout Japan and in Europe.  My project is part of a new initiative providing therapy for hikikomori, or persons who have intentionally turned from society (Wikipedia has a fascinating entry).  I’ll be building this boat with several people in treatment for the disorder, working one-on-one with them.

2014 Rare Craft Fellowship Award

The American Craft Council, in association with The Balvenie, a Scottish distillery, awarded the 2014 Rare Craft Fellowship February 6, 2014 in New York City at Per Se restaurant.  I had received a letter in December informing me that I had been nominated anonymously as one of five national finalists.  To my great surprise and honor, I was named the winner.  The Rare Craft Fellowship honors those who practice a rare craft and seek to preserve the skills of their trade.  I was honored for my work in Japan documenting traditional boatbuilding.

The Balvenie prides itself on making whiskey in the most traditional manner possible, controlling all aspects of production by farming their own grain, making their barrels and even employing a coppersmith to build and maintain their distilling equipment.  As part of the award The Balvenie is bringing me to Scotland for a two-week residency.  http://www.thebalvenie.com/

(all photographs courtesy FineYoungMan Productions: https://www.facebook.com/fineyoungman)

The other finalists represented a stunning array of crafts practiced today in America.  It is sincerely humbling to have been named in their company.  They include:


 *   Scott Baxendale | Luthier http://www.baxendaleguitar.com/ Athens, Georgia—Scott Baxendale began building custom guitars in 1974. Since then, he has created instruments for the world’s top musicians, restored vintage guitars for museums and private collections. His skills extend to teaching the craft of lutherie to a new a generation at his shop, Baxendale Guitar, which he opened in Athens in 2013.
 *   Stephen Bilenky | Bicycle Builder http://www.bilenky.com/ Philadelphia, Pennsylvania—Stephen Bilenky has been working with bicycles for 44 years and opened his shop, Bilenky Cycle Works, in 1983. He has received widespread acclaim for his custom bikes and is the man behind the annual Philly Bike Expo.
 *   Ubaldo Vitali | Silversmith http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubaldo_Vitali Newark, New Jersey—As a fourth-generation silversmith, Ubaldo Vitali has gained extensive knowledge in both historic and modern metalworking techniques. He was born and raised in Italy and moved to the US in 1967. Vitali creates new works using historic techniques, restores old metalwork, and promotes the preservation of historic collections.
 *   Ina Grau | Shoemakers http://inagrau.com/ Minneapolis, Minnesota—Luisa Fernanda Garcia-Gomez and Crystal Quinn started the Ina Grau shoe company in 2011 with their limited edition lines. The pair’s unique shoes emphasize traditional techniques, a blend of Columbian and American styles, which are handmade in both countries.

Finalists and jury.

For further information about the American Craft Council Rare Craft Fellowship Award in Association with The Balvenie or for any media inquiries, contact:
Annie Taplin / Sonia Lessuck
Susan Magrino Agency
212-957-3005
annie.taplin@smapr.com
sonia.lessuck@smapr.com

Lofting Workshop

The second week of January I spent at the Carpenter's Boatshop in Bristol, Maine, teaching a lofting workshop to the ten apprentices there.  This is the second year I have conducted a lofting workshop for apprentices.  This year was a bit different because we were also going to take the lines (measure) a historic skiff from Orland, Maine the Boatshop has owned for many years.  Its a lovely skiff, admired by many, and the decision had been made to build a replica of it this Spring.  The project gave our lofting workshop special meaning, since apprentices will be following up our workshop by building moulds from their lofting, and then the boat.

First we lofted a very simple flatiron skiff just to introduce apprentices to the concepts of fairing lines in three views: profile, plan, and sections.  Lofting is an essential first step in boatbuilding, a process formerly done by carving half models.  It is now threatened by computer-designed boats where lines are drawn full-size by a plotter.

I believe that learning lofting is still a skill worth having.  So many boat designs are available from books and museums and anyone who can loft a boat has access to an enormous range of designs.

We had to piece the bow of the skiff back together, but luckily we had all the pieces.  The hull had to be squeezed back tight to the keel.  It was important that we get the boat as close to original shape as possible.

The boat was put up on one edge or our lofting table.  I like to loft on a temporary table, rather than on the floor.

We set rough-cut plywood forms covered with paper at our stations.  We clamped them to the table so they were at right angles to the keel centerline.

Using tick sticks, apprentices scribed measurements at each station.  The paper templates were then laid on the lofting and the shape of each station was transferred to the lofting.  From this the apprentices were able to develop a table of offsets (dimensions) which was our starting point to loft the lines.

Boatshop instructor Sarah Highland (center) working with apprentices on the lofting.  I loft boats on rolls of high quality paper.  This way the lofting of all my boats can be easily stored.

Some students decided to make half models, an exercise I encourage because it gives students a sense of how fairing lines and reconciling three views of the hull work.  In this case the model is the Boatshop's own sloop.