For over 1,300 years, the carpenters of Japan’s densely forested Hida region have been crafting from wood, and now there’s an exhibition about their work in London.
A large room, filled with the sounds of the woodlands and decorated with forested drapes shows off samples of the woodworker’s craft, from the clever joints, to early woodworking equipment and many examples of their finished products.
Some of the joints on show are puzzles for you to play with and see if you can solve the riddle of how they work – right up to a lattice that was annoyingly difficult to solve. I eventually resorted to watching the video.
The “master carpenters of Hida” can be traced back to the 8th century, when early documents show the taxes — in labour — that they were required to pay. Taxes were shockingly high though, as carpenters were required to give up 330 days of their year working for the Imperial family, leaving hardly any time for their own work.
All around are examples of the masters art, from the delicate latticework samples to the gilt Buddhist temple box, and the richly polished lacquer ware.
I also learned that the straw hats that are such a stereotypical sight in parts of Asia are made from straw for a very good reason. In the summer the straw lets air through the gaps to cool the wearer, but in the wet, the straw expands and becomes watertight. Which is quite clever.
Woodworking isn’t stuck in the past, with examples of modern techniques, such as the recent discovery that a softwood can be made hard enough to use by compressing the wood under weights so that it becomes denser.
Overall, it’s a nice exhibition to learn a little bit about a group of people who have been doing pretty much the same thing for over a millennia, with a number of examples, and puzzles, of their work.
The exhibition ends, or starts if you came in the other side, with examples of Yuki-Nyūdo, supernatural one-eyed figures carved from waste wood that are part of the local folklore.
There’s also more to look at on the ground floor, where, as is usual with Japan House exhibitions, they fill the windows with more examples to look at.
The exhibition, The Carpenters’ Line: Woodworking Heritage in Hida Takayama is at Japan House in Kensignton until the end of January 2023.
It’s free to visit, and while they recommend booking a ticket, I’ve usually been able to just turn up and go in.
