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Thread: Japanese furniture design books

  1. #1
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    Japanese furniture design books

    I've been searching unsuccessfully for a basic reference or project book that discusses traditional Japanese woodworking, to get some ideas for furniture pieces. I've looked in the usual places, including surprisingly The Japan Woodworker, and can't find anything useful. A few books pop up in Amazon, but a close look reveals they are more about philosophy, construction, tools, or joinery, and not furniture design. I did search here at SMC, but saw no useful info from previous inquiries. Any ideas or suggestions? Maybe I'm missing the obvious. Thanks.

  2. #2
    You may want to ask Stan Covington in the neanderthal section.
    He's living in Japan, and an excellent woodworker.

    As for US sources of woodworking books, you may want to call Hida tool in California.
    They are everything that Japan Woodworker isn't-- knowledgable, well stocked, and Japanese.

    After woodcraft bought out Japan Woodworker in Alameda, they started replacing Japanese tools with made in China ones...which work, but not as well. I was a huge fan of the old store in Alameda, as it's where I got my first good chisels and saws. The new place fumbles my orders, charges more, and misrepresents itself. Sigh.

    Other ideas may be the websites of various Japanese museums.
    Japan has pretty good documentation of their stuff.

    What style of furniture are you going for?
    The Japanese have multiple styles from traditional (multiple eras of traditional) to very modern.

  3. #3
    I recommend first getting to know your tastes (Shaker, Krenov, Eames, etc) and seeing if there's a Japanese analog.

    Also, I've found Ishitani Woodworking videos to be pretty informative and stress relieving.
    I'm not sure if that helps?

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    Matt, I'll check into those websites, thanks. Here's where I am. I've seen photos of Japanese-inspired work in various w-working magazines over the years, and its got me interested in investigating incorporating some style elements into some projects. Since I don't know much about Japanese w-working, I was hoping there were some books with examples of historic and contemporary furniture, drawings, etc. I like Shaker-style pieces, and have made several, and it is easy to find books with examples, measured drawings, of Shaker furniture. I have several books on Shaker (e.g, Becksvoort), Mission, Greene & Greene (Peart), etc., and others from which I've borrowed ideas and made replicas. I'm looking for the same with Japanese styles, without necessarily getting into authentic techniques and tools and having to understand the culture and history behind the styles. Photos in mags and websites are good, but a solid reference book would be better.
    Last edited by Stan Calow; 03-17-2018 at 2:54 PM.

  5. #5
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    Hi Stan,

    Japanese furniture is probably better thought of in two categories; Traditional Japanese furniture and contemporary Japanese furniture. Traditional is Tansu and Sashimono so searching for those two terms specifically will likely yield more results. Traditionally a Japanese house is fairly spartan WRT furniture, leaning instead toward built-in carpentry. Contemporary Japanese furniture is a bit more all encompassing and makers such as Ishitani and Blank are a good sample of what's out there.
    Bumbling forward into the unknown.

  6. #6
    Well, design, it's a pretty big word But to me it is even misplaced when applied to (the old-time) Japanese furniture and this may explain part of why you are having such a hard time getting your hands on such a book. Not really ever designed, these pieces evolved into a series of codes that got assembled to some degree or the other depending on the specific, although very constricted, needs. So someone might order a kitchen cabinet and for the most part the general out-lines of the piece were already plugged into the minds of both the one making that order and the one set to make the piece - you see what I'm getting at by now I think. It will be difficult to find a single book on furniture design and the search is kind of incongruous instead you have to get an idea of the big picture here, or there.

  7. #7
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    Thanks for your comments Matt, Brian and Ernest. Brian, I understand what you're saying. If I had found references for either traditional or contemporary, at least I would have a choice. Whenever I see a piece of furniture that is described as having Japanese (or even Asian) influences, I keep thinking there must have been someone who analyzed and identified good examples. My results when searching book sources for Japanese woodworking or furniture, usually came up with the same books: an out-of-print book on Tansu chests, a couple on making tools, a couple on Shoji screens, and a couple on large scale joinery.

    ernest, your observations are helpful. I guess I was hoping that someone had at least attempted to make available the big picture (or parts of it) in one place, as has been done with other style groups. Examples are few and far between except in museums round here.

  8. #8
    Hi,
    I see you're looking for a book, and I wish I had one to recommend. If you find one, please post a follow up because I share your interest.
    However, as a source of inspiration, have you ever gone to Pinterest? If you put Japanese Furniture in the search bar at Pinterest, there's no shortage of beautiful furniture pieces that come up.

    Like Brian points out in terms of categories, some of what comes up in the search is traditional Tansu looking furniture, but a lot is much more modern. Some are riffs on Japanese design as interpreted by American artisan woodworkers.
    Hope you find this useful,
    Edwin

  9. #9
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    Edwin, thanks. Yes I could spend all day long looking at examples of traditional and modern Japanese furniture on the internet. I was hoping someone would have digested the basic design concepts of any of those styles, and explained them in a book as most of the western styles have been. I can see some asian-style elements second hand through F.L. Wright and Greene & Greene, for example, but I'd like to know from where these things come.

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    You probably will not find much written about contemporary Japanese furniture styles. Probably the starting point is found in Nakashima, who worked for Frank Lloyd Wright as an architect and found great influence in western furniture designed by Charlotte Perriand. Contemporary Japanese furniture is heavily influenced by traditional Jspanese carpentry and both contemporary and traditional western design.

    All of this becomes a bit circular, so start at the beginning; traditional Japanese carpentry and traditional Chinese furniture. There are many books written on both subjects. Of course it is greatly worth your while to search contemporary resources such as Chris Hall’s The Carpentry Way blog.

    It’s worth noting that traditional western furniture was in many ways heavily influenced by Chinese architecture and furniture and both modern and contemporary work very heavily influenced by Japanese carpentry.
    Bumbling forward into the unknown.

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