Carpentry Scrolls (1 results)

Hundreds of drawings & some text. Nine scrolls (all roughly 260 x 4500 mm.) & one notebook. Japan: late Edo. Japanese shrines and temples require constant maintenance, restoration, and rebuilding. These nine scrolls and one notebook are concerned with the architectural aesthetics of shrines and temples and the highly specialized construction techniques used to construct them, including the complex joinery methods, which did not require the use of nails, glue, or fasteners. As constant reminders in the texts in the scrolls tell us, the crafts illustrated here were to be carefully guarded and passed on to future generations in great secrecy. Apprenticeships could last as long as ten years. Some of the master joiners are named. The drawings in the scrolls are exceptionally detailed, oftentimes in extreme close-up depictions, showing many of the methods of joining, the desired proportions accompanied by measurements, names of individual parts of the materials used in construction, and the problems in building and maintaining a shrine or temple. These nine scrolls contain hundreds of drawings of plans for all aspects of shrines and temples; each is focused on a different topic. These include the many varieties of traditional shrine gates (torii ??), oftentimes with measurements, references to known gates and their creators, and idealized gates with ratios. There are also examples and styles of hafu ?? (decorative bargeboards or gable end boards), including kara hafu (undulating or cusped gables), irimoya (hip-and-gable), and mukuri hafu (curved gables). The concept of kiwari ??, the proportional system used to determine the dimensions of building components based on their relationship to other components, is also discussed in one of the scrolls, along with the methods of measuring and cutting wood to achieve a harmonious structure. Many drawings also illustrate the components of taruki ??, rafters used to help support a roof in traditional Japanese wooden construction. One scroll illustrates an idealized temple building, with succeeding detailed drawings of its components, measurements, and ratios, along with many illustrations of ornaments. Other scrolls are concerned with the ornamental aspects of shrines and temples, all illustrated in great detail, again with measurements and ratios. One scroll deals with decorative windows, screens, wooden sliding doors, and shelves, in many styles. Another scroll discusses and illustrates a N?h performing stage and ancillary buildings constructed in August 1774 for Matsudaira Chikuzen no kami (in Kaga fiefdom?). These nine scrolls are accompanied by a manuscript notebook (37 leaves, 8vo, 247 x 173 mm.), which discusses and illustrates gegyo ??, decorative wooden boards or pendants traditionally attached under the roof gables, found on Shinto shrines, Buddhist temples, and castles. At the ends of four scrolls, it is indicated that they were copied in 1811 and 1819. In fine condition; all preserved in an old wooden box.