Japanese-style shoji screens are translucent, wooden-lattice panels that subtly transform light and space and add an elegant touch to any decor. This book contains all the information you need to design and make shoji for your own home or apartment. Features: Notes on aesthetics and design fundamentals Complete how-to guide covering basic construction methods, screen materials, and wood selection Home projects, including window inserts, sliding and hanging screens, glass panel shoji, double- and single-sided shoji, skylight shoji, decorative wall boxes, and floor and table lanterns Introduction to Japanese hand tools and planing and joinery techniques Sample lattice patterns, photographs, and line drawings for design and remodeling ideas List of suppliers
The construction of shoji - Japanese sliding doors and screens - requires great skill and attention to detail. However the task is within the reach of amateur woodworkers. Toshio Odate provides the necessary guidance and skills needed to tackle this traditional craft with confidence.
With its history of nearly a thousand years, shoji - translucent paper-backed sliding doors and screens - are an inherent part of Japanese tradition and culture. But their beauty and charm can equally be adapted to rooms in a Western home. In this book, Des King examines basic shoji making and design. He gives comprehensive background information about shoji and how they have evolved, and detailed step-by-step instructions, supported by many diagrams and photographs, on how to make three shoji with progressively more complex kumiko arrangements, and variations on structure and joinery. Kumiko patterns enhance the uniqueness and charm of shoji, and Des King introduces three different kinds of patterns, and provides detailed instructions on how to make each kind, including dimensional diagrams of jigs that will improve work efficiency. He also dispels many of the myths about the Japanese hand-plane - the kanna - with an extensive description of how to set up, use and maintain this exceptional tool, including problems that can arise and how to avoid them. Through his highly structured and traditional approach in Book 1, Des King lays solid foundations from which any woodworker can confidently look toward tackling much more complex kumiko patterns and arrangements that can enhance the flair and individuality of shoji in any setting.
This colour reference offers practical ways of incorporating Japanese design elements into western homes. It should provide both the DIY enthusiast as well as the professional with a wide array of ideas, fully illustrated and supported by plans and diagrams. Filled with elegant designs and clever tips, A Japanese Touch for Your Home offers bold and exciting ideas for remodeling your home or redecorating your apartment. The author, architect Koji Yagi, explains the basic elements of Japanese interior design and shows you how to use them. Install tatami mats and shoji
Little known fact: Buddhist Monks are amazing at cleaning and tidying. In this one-of-a-kind guide to cleaning your home, Buddhist monk Shoukei Matsumoto reveals how to make your home as spotless as it is tranquil and peaceful. For Buddhist monks cleaning well is a cardinal skill and, in A Monk's Guide to a Clean House and Mind, readers will discover their never-before-shared cleaning pro tips. In the Zen Buddhist tradition, true enlightenment is impossible if your home has even a speck of dust and, as such, Buddhist monks have much to teach us lay people about achieving a truly Zen clean. A Monk's Guide to a Clean House and Mind features charming illustrations and step-by-step instructions on such essential household cleansing tips as: First, Air It Out: Before cleaning anything Monk's first open the temple windows to purify the air and let the crisp morning breeze in. Don't Procrastinate: 'Zengosaidan ' is a Zen expression meaning that one should put all their efforts into each day so they have no regrets. In the context of cleaning, this means don't put off cleaning those dishes you've left in the sink. Remember to Put On Your Samue: Samue robes are worn by Japanese monks when they perform their daily duties of cleaning and looking after the temple. Easy to move in and to wash and care for, they are the perfect cleaning attire. From cleaning up everything from your kitchen sink, toilet, and that pile of unidentified stuff in the corner of your garage to your mind, body, and spirit, this book will guide you in creating a home environment that will calm your thoughts and nourish your soul.
A remarkable classic work on traditional Japanese architecture and its general integrative quality, the order of space and form, the flexibility of partitions and room functions and other important or unique qualities. 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. 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 …in modern living and building," according to the author, who further believes that the unique features of the Japanese house are better suited to serve as a pattern for contemporary housing than any other form of residential structure.
A fully illustrated, beautifully produced edition of Junichiro Tanizaki's wise and evocative essay on Japanese culture. ‘We find beauty not in the thing itself but in the patterns of shadows, the light and the darkness, that one thing against another creates... Were it not for shadows, there would be no beauty.’ This book is in fact a portal. Reading it, you will be led by Junichiro Tanizaki’s light touch into a mysterious and tranquil world of darkness and shadows, where gold flashes in the gloom and a deep stillness reigns. If you are accustomed to equate light with clarity, the faded with the worthless and the dim with the dreary, prepare for a courteous but powerful realignment of your ideas. In Praise of Shadows is a poetic paean to traditional Japanese aesthetics – in a free-ranging style that moves from architecture to No theatre, and from cookery to lighting, Tanizaki teaches us to see the beauty in tarnished metal, the sombre dignity in unglazed pottery, the primacy of organic materials that bear witness to the regular touch of human hands. It is also astonishingly prescient, offering a gentle warning against the quest for airbrushed perfection, and reminding us that too much light can pollute and obscure our natural world. In this special edition, the text is accompanied by specially selected images to complement Tanizaki’s reflections and further illustrate the pattern and beauty of shadows.
At publication date, a free ebook version of this title will be available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. The Hasegawa Reader is an open access companion to the bilingual catalogue copublished with The Noguchi Museum to accompany an international touring exhibition, Changing and Unchanging Things: Noguchi and Hasegawa in Postwar Japan. The exhibition features the work of two artists who were friends and contemporaries: Isamu Noguchi and Saburo Hasegawa. This volume is intended to give scholars and general readers access to a wealth of archival material and writings by and about Saburo Hasegawa. While Noguchi’s reputation as a preeminent American sculptor of the twentieth century only grows stronger, Saburo Hasegawa is less well known, despite being considered the most literate artist in Japan during his lifetime (1906–1957). Hasegawa is credited with introducing abstraction in Japan in the mid 1930s, and he worked as an artist in diverse media including oil and ink painting, photography, and printmaking. He was also a theorist and widely published essayist, curator, teacher, and multilingual conversationalist. This valuable trove of Hasegawa material includes the entire manuscript for a 1957 Hasegawa memorial volume, with its beautiful essays by philosopher Alan Watts, Oakland Museum Director Paul Mills, and Japan Times art writer Elise Grilli, as well as various unpublished writings by Hasegawa. The ebook edition will also include a dozen essays by Hasegawa from the postwar period, and one prewar essay, professionally translated for this publication to give a sense of Hasegawa’s voice. This resource will be an invaluable tool for scholars and students interested in midcentury East Asian and American art and tracing the emergence of contemporary issues of hybridity, transnationalism, and notions of a “global Asia."
Illustrates how to connect with and incorporate Japanese design traditions into western homes. Adept at compact living and masters of elegant simplicity, the Japanese embody the principle of doing more with less.
In the woods, on a mountaintop, or at the water’s edge, a small cabin can fulfill big dreams. With attention to efficient living and minimizing energy footprints, Gerald Rowan provides 62 designs for compact and creative buildings that are flexible enough to fit whatever your needs may be. Rowan includes detailed floor plans with plenty of modular elements that make the designs adaptable and easy to recreate with cost-effective, low-maintenance materials. Make the most of the cabin you call home, regardless of its size.
