Japanese Tools Australia sponsored the internationally renowned Douglas Brooks to share his insights and skills in a five-day workshop that saw the planks to the left woven together with simple tools and deep insight into a watertight Japanese river boat.
Mitch from JTA organised the importation of a container of Japanese red cedar (Sugi) because no equivalent Australian substitute in 300 x 30mm could be found (at an acceptable price).
Sugi has a story behind it. Japan is home to more than 4,000 species of timber. The firebombing of Japan in World War Two burnt down millions of traditional wooden homes. After the war the government decreed that terraces used for the growing of vegetables and some rice paddies be planted with the fast-growing boatbuilding timber Sugi. These ubiquitous forests were soon being harvested to supply stock for building whole new towns and cities.
The Sugi river boat above is propelled by a sculling oar that allows the boat to navigate the narrow canals found in rice paddies. The suburbanisation of Japan has seen most rice paddies near large towns filled in for urban development. These days a narrow barge powered by a
