斫ろう会　ー　Hatsurou-kai

A few months back I had the opportunity to join some friends for Hatsurou-kai (斫ろう会), an event dedicated to Japanese traditional hewing. The event is organized almost every year by a small group of carpenters with the sole purpose of gathering together to share knowledge, skills and love for all things related to Japanese carpentry with an emphasis on hewing.

As far as events go, this one is pretty loose. Basically several logs were set up and people took turns hewing with Japanese broad axes, masakari (鉞), and adzes, chouna (チョウナ), long into the night for two full days.

I posted some of these pictures and videos on social media shortly after the event and it was met with some serious disbelief and frustration by plenty of people who thought that barefoot hewing is irresponsible and dangerous. I totally get it, it looks pretty frightening. I’ve been told that carpenters hew barefoot or in thin soled shoes like tabi because it allows their feet to more naturally grip the log, giving you better balance and stability, which is certainly important when you’re wielding a huge masakari. Perhaps a hard-toe shoe or tabi would be safer, but the reality is this is how many people do it in Japan. Regardless of what type of shoes you’re wearing, if you’re swinging a big, heavy, sharp masakari or chouna, you had better be 100% focused and aware of your body and surroundings. If you’re hewing properly the masakari should never contact the top side of the log where your feet are, only the side of the log. In any case after two full days of hewing, nobody got hurt, and all toes remained attached.

The above video is my friend Jon Stollenmeyer, who needless to say is really good at hewing, and has invested a lot of time to develop that skill. Also stunning to witness was the craftsman below. This guy was hewing for hours on end, and was also wielding one of the biggest and heaviest masakari. Watching him hew, was a clear example of how important it is to learn how to properly use your body when you are doing something physically demanding like this. Finding a way to ergonomically wield the tool, allowing it to do the bulk of the work, is massively important if you’re going to be spending hours or days on end hewing logs. When you first try your hand at hewing, either with a masakari or chouna, there is a tendency for your whole body to be really tight and rigid. It’s quite a natural response to hold the tool in that way when you first start swinging a razor sharp, heavy blade around. But when you watch professionals hew you see how loose they are and how freely they allow the tool to swing. It’s not an easy thing to do, and takes a lot of time to develop the skill to control the tool while also staying loose.

The finished hewn surface is beautiful, and incredibly consistent.

Along with masakari work, there was also plenty of chouna hewing going on. A chouna can leave a finer surface than an masakari, and isn’t nearly as heavy to handle, but nonetheless requires a huge amount of skill and control. Generally with both masakari or chouna, the final surface should look clean, meaning the pattern should be consistent and as free of torn-out grain as possible. The chouna also allows for more surface patterns, such as the turtle-back or kikko （亀甲）pattern in the video below.

On the second day of Hatsuroukai we also started ripping a log with a traditional rip saw (ooga – 大鋸). I don’t remember the exact length of the log but it was somewhere around 4 meters. Taking turns it took a 2.5-3 hours or so to fully rip the log, which really makes you appreciate the folks who day in and day out did nothing but this kind of sawing prior to modern machinery.

Last but not least is the yari-ganna (槍鉋), or Japanese spear plane. In Japan this tool was the predecessor to the hand plane (kanna – 鉋). Historically, the masakari, chouna and yari-ganna were all used one after the other to take rough logs to finished structural members. We did just that at Hatsurou-kai, by first hewing one face of a log flat and true, then refining that surface further with the chouna, and finally finishing the surface as cleanly and smoothly as possible with the yari-ganna.

Here is my buddy Jason Fox becoming addicted to the yari-ganna. It’s a really fun tool to use.

All of these tools, masakari, chouna and yari-ganna, have their subtlities, but the yari-ganna has a really sweet, delicate, slicing action that leaves a soft ripply surface. Below is a photo I took of a yari-ganna finished surface from the Kigumi museum in Tokyo.

I think it’s truly amazing that events like this exist, where people who are really devoted to their craft come together and share their experience and knowledge, and most importantly, keep skills like these alive! After witnessing the sheer skill and labor that goes into hewing or sawing just one log, and then visiting an old temple or shrine, it really makes you appreciate the absolutely astounding amount of work, skill, and experience that went into building these old structures. And this kind of work cannot be replicated in the same way by machine, which is why it’s so important to maintain traditional architecture and to continue to keep these skills alive.

Thanks to everyone who made Hatsurou-kai possible, and please everyone, go out and buy and axe and adze and start hewing!