Togo Miyashita, one of the apprentices at Mount Fuji Wood Culture Society, removed a cover to reveal a highly figured burl slab of keyaki.
One of the first tasks he was given, several months ago, was to plane this exceedingly difficult piece of wood. It would require him to not only work the wood, but to first learn how to set up, sharpen and use a hand plane. And, to get it into a state of performance that is no less than professional. And, unlike many apprentices with furniture building backgrounds, Togo-san had almost no experience in woodworking when he started his apprenticeship. When I arrived, he had been working on it for 8 months and it was nearing completion.
Togo-san had studied English education in university, to better pursue his life goal of spreading Japanese culture abroad. If you visit Mount Fuji Wood Culture Society, you will be depending on Togo-san for advice in so many areas; in the wood shop, grocery store, and even dealing with the complexities of Japan's unique and regionalized garbage sorting procedures. And to let us know what the ideal ice cream cone at 7-11 was. I feel so fortunate and grateful to have spent so much time with him both during class, driving around in an kei-truck, and late into the night when we would find ourselves pushing to improve our skills.
Even without a furniture school background, Togo-san was raised in craft, coming from a soba restaurant family. We were fortunate enough to visit one day.
Soba Kurumaya restaurant is known for not only finding ideal suppliers for every ingredient, but grinding their buckwheat on site. Togo's grandfather, who started the restaurant, is mostly retired. But he still makes the special noodles, called sarashina-soba, made from flour called "ichiban-ko", resulting in a white colored noodle. Togo’s mother, father and uncle work at the restaurant, but a focused tone permeates the environment; No casual language is used at any time between family members while they are working. And even humming while washing dishes is discouraged as a distraction. In his application letter to Tak-san, he shared not only his dreams, but his upbringing which gave him an appreciation for the focus and time necessary to approach any craft.
When the soba arrived, Togo-san indicated it would be best to try the noodles without any accompaniment at first bite. We finished with a simple desert of watermelon. I will never forget this meal.
Togo spent his time exploring the slab’s complexities alongside his other duties, including the design and creation of a thatched structure based on Jomon architecture, built from chestnut timbers on site.
All the while, the slab was flattened and planed over months and months. One day, the slab was placed near a doorway where it was bumped into. It crashed to the floor, hitting the leg of a bench, splintering a section which required some dovetails to reinforce.
When I asked Tak-san why he gave his apprentice such a difficult first assignment to do in his spare hours, he said that this way, Togo-san would not be misled in his skill level by completing easier tasks. And because anything he tried to plane after this would be relatively easy. This stands in contrast with some of the production oriented apprentices, like Shun, who were given actual chair work pieces and more basic tasks that they could complete while keeping the final product quality high.
Shun was another apprentice at the school, but focused on production. He was preparing for the colder months where chair building would occur by working on the bases that the legs and seat would be framed around. While I was there, he was setting up a few new tools, like a plane and some chisels, gathered with resources from his other job as a chef at a restaurant that specializes in wild game that he would help catch. They serve bear, deer, rabbit and boar, which I unfortunately did not get a chance to try this time around. Apprentices are housed, fed, and taught. But for the most part do not earn yet and so tools are very precious.
After being flattened, finish planing began. To finish the slab without track marks, Togo used a specific way of handling the corners on his planes. First, there is a small 1-2mm chamfer with a shallow angle on the border between the angled ears and the cutting edge. Then, a second steeper bevel. Basically, a flat edge with a double chamfer, the second one rounded.[1] (I’ll explore this idea more, in a future newsletter.)
Togo-san said he had many white lines on the slab at first, from the corner of the blade. Then he learned this method of easing the corners of the blade from Takuya-san, who was Tak’s previous apprentice. He learned it from Tak-San. Takuya-san works in the corner of the shop, as an independent chair maker who is beginning his life after apprenticeship. Takuya is full of conviction and technical skills earned over nearly a decade of working with Tak-san.
I get the sense that a year, or one, with the guidance of a master is worth decades of self study. If not a century.
Togo's finished keyaki slab was also remarkable in its lack of tear out, despite the highly complex grain pattern. Togo-san used a chipbreaker, rather than the brass mouthed single bladed planes that Tak-san regularly utilizes across species and grain directions.
After Togo finished sanding, Tak-san gave him a lesson applying urushi lacquer to the piece. He applied several coats sometimes sanding or burnishing with an abrasive pad.
There were 6 coats total, each one becoming less thirsty for urushi, and more glossy.
By the last week of class, Togo had applied the final coat.
This is the moment that Tak-san inspected the slab, and looked up at Togo with an expression of delight.
Tak-san had at some point said, smiling wide with pride, “This is too good for a first try.”
The keyaki slab will be used as a room divider in the chair laboratory showroom.
More:
-Mount Fuji Wood Culture Society
[1]:Some other people I’ve studied with, carpenters, plane with completely flat blades, using the sharp corners to highlight any uneveness but that is a technique to be discussed for another day, and one perhaps limited to perfectly flat surfaces and less useful as a general technique in a shop known for its curved surfaces. Dale Brotherton talks about this in his book, in case you're curious.
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