Carpenters in Japan's heavily forested Hida region have been working with wood for more than 1,300 years, and now there's an exhibition in London celebrating their work.
Filled with forest sounds and decorated with forest fabrics, the great hall displays examples of the carpenters' craft, from hinge heads to the first woodworking tools and many examples of the finished product.
Some of the joints shown are puzzles to play with and see if you can work out how it works, right down to the mesh which was very difficult to solve. I finally started watching the video.
"Master Carpenters of Heder" VIII. They date from the century when the first documents show that they were taxed at work. However, taxes were extremely high, as carpenters had to work 330 days a year for the royal family, leaving little time for their own work.
All around are examples of the masters' art, from the finest examples of fabric to gilded Buddhist temple chests and richly polished lacquer.
I also learned that the straw hats so stereotypical in parts of Asia are actually made of straw, for a very good reason. In summer, the straw lets air through the cracks, which cools the wearer, and in wet weather, the straw expands and becomes waterproof. Which is pretty obvious.
Woodworking is not a thing of the past, there are examples of modern methods such as pressing softwood under weight to properly compress the wood.
All in all, it's a good exhibit to learn a little about a group of people who have been doing the same thing for thousands of years, with lots of examples and puzzles of their work.
The exhibit ends, or begins if you walk the other way, with examples of yuki nyūdō, supernatural one-eyed figures carved from scrap wood that are part of local folklore.
There is also plenty to see downstairs where, like the Japan House exhibition, the windows are filled with many examples to look at.
The Carpenter's Line. Woodworking Traditions by Hida Takayama is at the Japanese House in Kensington until the end of January 2023.
The tour is free, and although they recommend booking tickets, I've usually been able to show up and get in.
