The Craft of Carpentry: Drawing Life from Japan’s Forests exhibits the deep relationships between humans and trees, celebrating traditional Japanese joinery.
This week, the RDA team visited The Craft of Carpentry: Drawing Life from Japan’s Forests at the Japan House in Kensington. The exhibition revealed over 1,000 years of Japanese woodworking through collections of beautiful tools, traditional Japanese joinery techniques, and materials. The exhibition was curated by Takenaka Carpentry Tools Museum and is centred around the relationships between humans and trees in Japan, of which two thirds of the land is covered in forest. We were able to see a full scale replica of a cedar and red pine teahouse, dating back to the 1700s; beautifully constructed with bamboo pillars and hidden joinery.
The skill, attention to detail, and resourcefulness of Japanese carpentry can teach us valuable lessons. The concepts of the joints employed to build structures without screws and nails, celebrating craftsmanship and the makers, were brilliantly illustrated through video, graphics, and interactive joinery. We found the exhibition to be beautifully curated, from the level of craftsmanship, attention to detail from the joinery and display of tools.
The exhibition reminds us of what design can be when rooted in craftsmanship, principles we continually return to in our own work. Our recent trip to The Craft of Carpentry exhibition at the Japan House in Kensington, has made us reflect on a past exhibition of ours at Rodic Davidson.
During our visit, we saw a display of more than 80 world-class carpentry tools, which gave us an insight into the precision of traditional Japanese carpentry. Our window display exhibition on Bury Place, Memories of a Craftsman, as part of the London Festival of Architecture 2017, featured over 100 mid-century carpentry tools made and used by Ben Davidson’s grandfather during his career as a carpenter. Memories of a Craftsman exhibition display celebrated the wonderful tools, most of which Ben’s grandfather had made, and some they made together when Ben was a child.
Read more about our exhibition ‘Memories of a Craftsman‘.