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.

With its history of nearly a thousand years, shoji - translucent paper-backed sliding doors and screens - are an inherent part of Japanese tradition and culture. But their beauty and charm can equally be adapted to rooms in a Western home. In this book, Des King examines basic shoji making and design. He gives comprehensive background information about shoji and how they have evolved, and detailed step-by-step instructions, supported by many diagrams and photographs, on how to make three shoji with progressively more complex kumiko arrangements, and variations on structure and joinery. Kumiko patterns enhance the uniqueness and charm of shoji, and Des King introduces three different kinds of patterns, and provides detailed instructions on how to make each kind, including dimensional diagrams of jigs that will improve work efficiency. He also dispels many of the myths about the Japanese hand-plane - the kanna - with an extensive description of how to set up, use and maintain this exceptional tool, including problems that can arise and how to avoid them. Through his highly structured and traditional approach in Book 1, Des King lays solid foundations from which any woodworker can confidently look toward tackling much more complex kumiko patterns and arrangements that can enhance the flair and individuality of shoji in any setting.

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

In the years after World War II, Westerners and Japanese alike elevated Zen to the quintessence of spirituality in Japan. Pursuing the sources of Zen as a Japanese ideal, Shoji Yamada uncovers the surprising role of two cultural touchstones: Eugen Herrigel’s Zen in the Art of Archery and the Ryoanji dry-landscape rock garden. Yamada shows how both became facile conduits for exporting and importing Japanese culture. First published in German in 1948 and translated into Japanese in 1956, Herrigel’s book popularized ideas of Zen both in the West and in Japan. Yamada traces the prewar history of Japanese archery, reveals how Herrigel mistakenly came to understand it as a traditional practice, and explains why the Japanese themselves embraced his interpretation as spiritual discipline. Turning to Ryoanji, Yamada argues that this epitome of Zen in fact bears little relation to Buddhism and is best understood in relation to Chinese myth. For much of its modern history, Ryoanji was a weedy, neglected plot; only after its allegorical role in a 1949 Ozu film was it popularly linked to Zen. Westerners have had a part in redefining Ryoanji, but as in the case of archery, Yamada’s interest is primarily in how the Japanese themselves have invested this cultural site with new value through a spurious association with Zen.

Vast and narrow, teeming and lonely; futuristic, old, fast, mesmerising...This is a book that takes the reader on a journey through the bewildering sights of the city that inspired Blade Runner and Lost in Translation, a city of many contrasts. Vast & narrow, teeming & lonely; futuristic, old, fast, mesmerising...This is a book that takes the reader on a journey through the bewildering sights of the city that inspired Blade Runner and Lost in Translation, a city of many contrasts. In Parts 1 & 2, the secrets of the modern capital are unlocked district by district, from the hip

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.

Buddhism first came to the West many centuries ago through the Greeks, who also influenced some of the culture and practices of Indian Buddhism. As Buddhism has spread beyond India, it has always been affected by the indigenous traditions of its new homes. When Buddhism appeared in America and Europe in the 1950s and 1960s, it encountered contemporary psychology and psychotherapy, rather than religious traditions. Since the 1990s, many efforts have been made by Westerners to analyze and integrate the similarities and differences between Buddhism and it therapeutic ancestors, particularly Jungian psychology. Taking Japanese Zen-Buddhism as its starting point, this volume is a collection of critiques, commentaries, and histories about a particular meeting of Buddhism and psychology. It is based on the Zen Buddhism and Psychotherapy conference that took place in Kyoto, Japan, in 1999, expanded by additional papers, and includes: new perspectives on Buddhism and psychology, East and West cautions and insights about potential confusions traditional ideas in a new light. It also features a new translation of the conversation between Schin'ichi Hisamatsu and Carl Jung which took place in 1958. Awakening and Insight expresses a meeting of minds, Japanese and Western, in a way that opens new questions about and sheds new light on our subjective lives. It will be of great interest to students, scholars and practitioners of psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, and analytical psychology, as well as anyone involved in Zen Buddhism.