February 16th-March 1st 2025. More information on Chozen-ji's site.
Togo, apprentice at Mount Fuji Wood Culture Society, said to me, “If you tell people your dreams, they can help you.”
We started Paklan, along with other things, to share craft technique, culture, stories and create more craftspeople. So, when my friend Jason Fox and I started planning a small timber frame in Honolulu, we dreamt it could be a class.
Around the same time, Michael Kangen (roshi at Chozen-ji) and I were spending time together. We were looking at keisaku, the stick people get hit with during zazen. I was to make a few prototypes for the temple, with the perfect amount of rigidity and springiness, considering the species and shape of the stick. Walking the grounds, we started dreaming about the idea of Japanese carpentry classes at Chozen-ji.
So, we are doing it. The class will be a combination of set up, sharpening, and use of Japanese hand tools and joinery. It will culminate with the cutting and raising of a small timber frame meant to shelter a pottery wheel and kiln at my home.
Uniquely, the class will be hosted by Chozen Ji, the Rinzai Zen temple in Kalihi Valley. Chozen-Ji will be providing housing and food as well as spiritual guidance in the form of zazen every morning.
Jason will be the lead instructor. Before starting the Japanese Woodworking Festival in Maine, Jason Fox apprenticed in Japan with Kohei Yamamoto and Jon Stollenmeyer of Somakosha. This past summer, Jason and Yamamoto-san put together a 40-foot-long timber frame in Maine with 25 students.
Yama-san was also the lead carpenter on a timber framing build in Idaho hosted by Collin Beggs in 2022.
Jason is amazing to be around because they carry this unstoppable and contagious energy that I enjoy greatly.
The head of Nakamura Komuten, the first Japanese carpenter I ever met, told me, “If you want to understand Japanese carpentry, you have to understand Buddhism.” This was almost 8 years ago, 2 years before I picked up my first chisel, saw, and plane.
Years later, I can’t say I really understand Buddhism or Japanese carpentry very much, but I do know I like what I have felt at Chozen-ji.
One day, I sat at a beginner session at Chozen Ji with Michael. He taught us how Chozen-ji, as the only Rinzai temple outside of Japan, had a culture of directness. I was struck by his warnings to newcomers that Chozen-ji was not a place for escapism or avoiding themselves. They believe in practicing Zen in the body, not the intellect.
”At Chozen-ji, we practice the arts to deepen our Zen training, but only when we have passion for the art can it become a Way. The forms of Zen training, themselves, can be an art. How to bow, how to enter the Dojo, how to breathe, how to sit, how to walk, and so on are all forms which can be practiced. These forms at the Dojo, particularly the forms at sesshin, can be considered performance art which gathers and focuses the heart/mind.“ — Michael Kangan
Classes will be the last 2 weeks of February 2025 (There will be 12 spots. Students just need to bring themselves and tools (once you’re signed up, please ask us about tools.)
Students who want to stay on the grounds have preference over those who want to stay at home or elsewhere, but we are open to that. Pricing is $2800 including housing and food and $2100 without it, for two weeks. We are taking applications for the program through Chozen-ji’s website.
Let me know if you have any questions.
- Interviews with Kohei Yamamoto and Jason Fox by Mokuchi
- About Chozen-ji
