The Complete Japanese Joinery

• Art Of Japanese Joinery
• Japanese Woodworking Tools: Their Tradition, Spirit, and Use
• Shoji: How to Design, Build, and Install Japanese Screens
• Measure and Construction of the Japanese House
• The Genius of Japanese Carpentry: The Secrets of a Craft

I would have liked to see a few more diagrams, but that's really wanting a lot at this stage. This is the book I've been looking for. Good detail for actually working with the wood. There's more than enough here to keep me busy for a long time. Having some of the history behind the process was also helpful.

I have lived in Japan for about two years. And the heart of the samauri wood worker. I had been a tool envious "Norm" follower for many years. These joints have evolved and at one time were secrets of the particular trade guild, only taught to people after long apprenticeships. So when I watched Japanese woodworkers building in a new suburb in southern japan, I was suprised to see more of a timber frame construction process using round timbers. Hand tools. I thought to myself how strange.As I said two years ago I purchased this book on my quest to understand beauty and craftsmanship. Get the spirit of working with the wood.

Learn secrets of joining.I liked this book so much that when it got lost in my piles, I bought another.Marc Adams of the Marc Adams school uses a phrase he stole from someone. I had training in the technology. This is a late review for me as I purchased this book in 2006. The masters of joinery at work. I still use the phrase of the carpenters training manual to bring me to "reality" when I am involved in "More Power.", "More power tools." It says find a place under a tree and set up your tools.

Look at the joints. Craftsmanship. prior to that I did some work in remodeling and small buildings. When I read this I laughed heartily at myself. "See one, do one." It's the way of wood.

He always has bigger and better, even when I was catching up.This is about wood.

Good resource for carpenters who want to add something to their work or understanding. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The pics are black and white, but good. Also could be great for imaginitive furniture building. I've spent hours reading, and re-reading it.

For starters, all drawings are black and white so this may dissapoint some of you. I bought this one in the hope of getting good information about "how to"s in joining wood in a woodword project without using any metal parts (nails etc). I would recommend the book in the first place as a very instructive reading (which it is) and less for actually doing something being guided by its instructional content. However, it is quite complicated to follow drawings and I sometimes felt that a better 3D rendering of the cuts should be done in order to better understand japanese joinery techniques (which ARE very complicated). I'm fascinated by art and lifestyle in Japan. But are very well done and the book has a very interesting introductory section about japanese woodworking tools that provide a lot of information and some less expected aspects of japanese woodworking like, for example, tradition (I expected that) and an entire philosophical system (I didn't expected that). Anyway I'm glad I bought it because it gave me more insight into japanese traditional woodworking. Very interesting, a lot.

In fact, this book provided a joint that solved a problem that I had dwelled on for months. In fact, if I were the publisher I'd delete "Japanese Tool Use" from the title because this book really doesn't focus much on tool use. This book is really neat--definitely worth $16. Yeah, it's covered but there are other, more detailed texts n the topic.At times, the text is awkward. Even so, these multitude of ideas presented can really start the creative process for furniture makers, like myself. The book could benefit from more drawings that are in perspective.The description of the use of Japanese tools is brief. But you will need to read the material carefully because some of the joints are quite complex.

There are dozens and dozens of joints detailed but almost all of them are for framing buildings. Without this book, I never would have thought of this joint.Most of the joints described are described well. If I recall correctly, this book was translated from Japanese, which likely accounts for the awkward phrases. A lot of the joints are described with "drafting style" drawings--a front view, side view and top view.