Sukiya-daiku are described as artisans who embody the Japanese sense of aesthetics and display these values through the natural material of wood. Many young sukiya-daiku candidates who seek to master this traditional culture are trained in the builder’s firm to which Mr. Masuda belongs. Here, they learn how to design and build. “Turn your hands into tools as keen as knife blades,” he tells them in his first lesson.
“Techniques should be learned by watching and imitating how your senior artisans handle their work. In the future, I want to pass down my tools to young individuals who show good skills. In fact, the tools I use are memories of my senior artisans. Seniors like me have to pay attention to the work of young carpenters and leave some responsibility to them when they show good performance in a certain process. That’s how I learned my work, too,” says Mr. Masuda.
He continues, “When I was young, I planed a wood pillar and found that its sheen emerged on the surface. As I felt its smoothness with satisfaction, my master came up to me and touched the wood in silence — which meant our work was ‘qualified.’ I never forget this thrilling moment.”
This is how centuries-old sukiya aesthetics and architectural techniques have been passed down by master carpenters to apprentices, from past to present.
When Mr. Masuda entered the circle of carpenters as an apprentice, his senior carpenter taught him goitassha, a phrase from the Edo period. This refers to proficiency in five technical skills needed to be a master builder who leads the team: shikishaku (evaluating wood parts); sumigane (judging assignment of wood materials); teshigoto (handiwork such as wood planing and scraping); sanjutsu (crucial calculations for assembly and construction); and eyo (ability to design interior space and draw sketches) and horimono (techniques for chiseling and scraping to turn sketches into forms).
Mr. Masuda adds, “Today we are equipped with calculators and lumber-processing machines, so we can work much more easily than carpenters in olden times. But I still cannot call myself goitassha. My life will be a series of repeated efforts to learn and take challenges. Following what I believe is my way of life and probably is the way of life for all carpenters.”