Coaldrake, William H. El camino del maestro carpintero: las herramientas y la arquitectura japonesa. Gijón: Satori, 2021, 268 pp. ISBN: 978-84-1741-996-7

Abstract

The translation and publication in Spanish of The Way of the Carpenter: Tools and Japanese Architecture by author William H. Coaldrake, a recognized expert in the field of Japanese art and architecture history, constitutes a collective achievement promoted by the Association of Japanese Studies in Spain (AEJE). The book is a valuable manuscript of absolute validity, originally published in 1990, which reveals the origins of Japanese architecture, from its prehistory to the present day, through the reading of one of the most hermetic and admired craftsmen's guilds in the world, that of the Japanese carpenter. In a dual methodological approach between theoretical academicism and the link with professional praxis, the author focuses his manuscript on four guidelines: the carpenter, as a guild framework; the wood, as a raw material, with its properties and attributes; the technique, as a formal method of design and construction; and the tools, the true backbone of the book, as a specialized instrumental extension of the master carpenter (daiku, in Japanese), their characteristics, their evolution and their specific role in history. An indispensable work for architects and readers interested in traditional Japanese architecture.