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Welcome to the NYC Japanese Woodworking Newsletter!
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NEXT MEETUP |
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Thursday, July 9th, 6-8pm @ Nihonsan Tools |
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Please share this website with anyone you know who may be interested in joining our community and let us know if you have any questions or feedback. At the bottom of this newsletter, you will find further options to manage your subscription. |
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A Few Important Items to Get on Your Calendar
- Meetup this Thursday! — our monthly meetups continue this week. Power-up with another fun, social, and often informative gathering.
- Maine Japanese Woodworking Festival — This July 24-26, Jason Fox of Never Stop Building will host this year's annual gathering for all things Japanese Woodworking and Timber-Framing in Mercer, ME. (Register and learn more here.) Come and learn from the masters of the trade, connect with the wider community, and get inspired by the spirit and enthusiasm that draws us all together around this craft. Several members of the NYC community will be a part of the event including Joe, Will, makomako, Nolan Hatfield, Morgan Donn, Eli Weinberger, Eddie O'Donnell, and more.
For those already planning to head up for the event, we are coordinating carpooling. Get on our list by clicking to send emails using these links: Drivers. Passengers. In addition, participants can usually camp at the event site or stay on their own off-site, and Joe Samalin usually coordinates a big AirBNB for non-campers. If you are interested in joining please email him. info@nihonsantools.com.
- Meet Yann Giguère of Mokuchi Studio! — on Wednesday, July 22nd, Yann will be visiting the New York Japanese Woodworking Community and giving a short talk that evening before we head up to Maine the next day. To welcome him, we will be hosting an off-schedule meetup that night @ Nihonsan Tools from 6-8pm. Come down for this rare opportuntiy to meet and learn from one of the pillars of Japanese Woodworking in North America. Get it on your calendar! (more about Yann below)
- Tool Spa Day: Now on the Schedule! – On Saturday, August 29th, Nihonsan Tools and the Japanese Woodworking Community will be hosting its first ever "Tool Spa Day." Conceived by Joe Williams, an active member of the community, the event will feature a full day of tool setup and sharpening guidance, a rust removal station, scrap leather for making kanna wraps, and lots more... Be sure to mark you calendars and we'll have more information to share as the date gets closer.
- New classes - Starting this summer we will be offering additional carving classes. In addition to beginner classes tackling chopsticks and jam/butter spreaders, Dan Musick has offered to start teaching a two-day class teaching his awesome birds with individual feathers. They are a unique and exciting project through which to learn carving! Also, our new kumiko instructor Jess Chase will be offering a slate of new beginner and intermediate kumiko classes. Keep your eye out for those.
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When my wife and I moved to Brooklyn in 2016, I was just a year or so into woodworking and struggling with my Japanese tools. After another year on my own, I realized that it was time to get some expert advice. I went to Google to see what might be available in Brooklyn. It seemed reasonable to imagine that NYC must have something to offer around hand-tool woodworking with Japanese tools.
What I discovered was Yann Giguère's Mokuchi Studio website. There were classes, a monthly open studio night, and a "Mini-Kez," a Japanese woodworking mini-fest Yann had hosted in a small courtyard outside his Bushwick workshop. I had just missed that event... by a day. I went ahead and signed up for a sharpening class and came down to the next available open studio night to meet Yann for the first time.
After that class, there were a few others. He and I also spent many an open studio night discussing more than just woodworking. I became a volunteer for the Kez events, helping with A/V and recording equipment. And soon there were even a few of his client projects that Yann brought me in on. In late 2018, when a timely layoff ended my tech career, I found myself with a teacher, a mentor, and a friend in Yann, who had also connected me, and others, to a widespread family of woodworkers finding their inspiration in this craft tradition.
Since that time, Yann has moved his studio from that original Bushwick space, first to Port Jervis, New York, and most recently to Ashland, Oregon, where he continues to offer classes ranging from sharpening basics to multi-day intensives in joinery and tool setup. |
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Yann demonstrating how to scribe a post to a stone.
Maine Japanese Woodworking Festival, July 2024 |
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Yann's teaching style is patient, generous, and optimized for clarity. After many years working as a deft craftsman at the height of his trade, Yann has knowledge both deep and wide, replete with illuminating stories from his years working as an apprentice and then operating his own business. What many find after a class at Mokuchi is that they come away with more than just the requisite knowledge for the task—Yann also answers the "why" of certain principles and encourages bringing a quiet, mindful practice to the craft.
This orientation towards mindful practice in the work has been the core of a good deal of our conversation as friends and is a shared passion of ours. For the last few years, Yann has also delivered a series of talks on woodworking as a mindful practice, exploring the part of woodworking that isn't strictly "tool to wood." Yann's talk this year at the Maine Japanese Woodworking Festival will engage with how to maintain and cultivate joy in your time spent at the bench.
Join us on July 22nd, 6–8pm, to meet Yann, as he guides us in a short talk, before we make our way north to Maine for the Festival.
Don't miss it!
–Will |
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Podcast Listeners! |
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Be sure to check out the Mokuchi Studio Podcast, hosted by Yann Giguere, available on Spotify. On the show, Yann interviews Japanese woodworkers about their journey into woodworking, their process and more... |
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Hey folks! For those of you who can join us Thursday this week from 6-8 pm you will get to see a slew of new tools we have available at Nihonsan. We have collaborated with a new vendor to offer higher quality chisels, saws, and more. These include hardwood specific kataba, ryouba, and dozuki, different size saws, chu-tataki chisels (larger beefier chisels for heavy duty work like timber framing, etc.), blue steel chisels, scraper bars, and more. Come check them out! |
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