Making Shoji

The construction of shoji - Japanese sliding doors and screens - requires great skill and attention to detail. However the task is within the reach of amateur woodworkers. Toshio Odate provides the necessary guidance and skills needed to tackle this traditional craft with confidence.

Japanese-style shoji screens are translucent, wooden-lattice panels that subtly transform light and space and add an elegant touch to any decor. This book contains all the information you need to design and make shoji for your own home or apartment. Features: Notes on aesthetics and design fundamentals Complete how-to guide covering basic construction methods, screen materials, and wood selection Home projects, including window inserts, sliding and hanging screens, glass panel shoji, double- and single-sided shoji, skylight shoji, decorative wall boxes, and floor and table lanterns Introduction to Japanese hand tools and planing and joinery techniques Sample lattice patterns, photographs, and line drawings for design and remodeling ideas List of suppliers

Book 4 Diamond Patterns is the fourth book in the Shoji and Kumiko Design series, and follows on seamlessly from Book 3 Hexagonal Patterns. In Book 4, Des King gives detailed instructions on making 31 stunning patterns in the diamond (hishi-gata) jigumi arrangement, including the spectacular yotsu-kude four-way joint and tombo dragonfly pattern.More than 350 photographs and diagrams guide you at each stage on making these patterns using tools found in any Western workshop, and simple shop-made jigs. As with Books 1, 2 and 3, no specialized tools are required for any of the patterns covered in Book 4.

The construction of shoji-Japanese sliding doors-requires intricate skills and attention to detail. This guide to creating shoji brings together both traditional insight and technical mastery of the craft from the perspective of an apprenticed sliding-door maker. Step-by-step instructions, illustrated with photos of each work in progress, give detailed information on how to construct both common shoji and Japanese transom (a piece found between rooms and above sliding doors). The correct use of Japanese tools is discussed, as are techniques for marking lines, making specific joints and handles, using rice glue, and applying shoji paper.

Basic Connections provides basic information about expressions and usages that facilitate the flow of ideas and thoughts in written and spoken Japanese. It explains how words and phrases dovetail, how clauses pair up with other clauses, how sentences come together to create harmonious paragraphs. Since this is a book about the basics it starts with the fundamentals, explaining first the two types of Japanese sentence—"A is B" and "A does B." Then it proceeds to the problem of the modifier and the modified—a matter of "which is which." Wa and ga naturally get considerable play; after all, it is downright impossible to speak properly without them. There is also a discussion of linking nouns and noun phrases, not to speak of verbs and verb phrases. The book goes on to devote a whole chapter to common mistakes and troublesome usages. The final chapter attempts to pin down some particularly slippery locutions: such as toshite, imada ni, sore kara, whoppers like "Sentence A-te sae inakereba, Sentence B," and many more. Any beginning or intermediate student, having spent a certain amount of time and energy studying this book, will be able to speak and read Japanese in a much more coherent fashion.

Book 3 Hexagonal Patterns is the third and final book in the Shoji and Kumiko Design series, and follows on seamlessly from Book 2 - Beyond the Basics. In Book 3, Des King gives detailed, step-by-step instructions on making 45 stunning patterns in the hexagonal jigumi arrangement, ranging from the very simple, to the highly complex and extremely difficult. More than 500 photographs and diagrams guide you at each stage on making these patterns using tools found in any Western workshop, and simple shop-made jigs. As with Book 1 and Book 2, no specialised tools are required for any of the patterns covered in Book 3. The patterns in this book are indeed items of art, and can be applied in a broad range of furniture and artistic designs to set your work apart from all others.

This text shows how to use Japanese tools effectively and maintain them properly, and explains the role they play in traditional Japanese craftsmanship. It describes how to create razor-sharp cutting edges and introduces almost 50 different planes.

A collection of exquisitely crafted essays by Ben Okri, one of Britain's foremost poets, and a Booker Prize-winning novelist, that explore such diverse themes as childhood and creativity, beauty, censorship, art and politics. 'A single line,' writes Ben Okri, 'can lead the mind to terraces of contemplation. Naturally it depends on the line and the view.' This is a collection of exquisitely crafted essays on themes as diverse as childhood and creativity, beauty, censorship, art and politics. They are responses to the world and the times we live in. They ask unsettling questions. They provoke thoughts and they make us dream. 'Profound and enchanting' The Times. 'There can be no mistaking Okri's passion and intelligence. A powerful piece of work' Sunday Telegraph.