Kamakura Period Large Sea Boat by catopower - FINISHED - Scale 1:50

[cog]

1 hour ago, catopower said:

Oh, and actually this may be a 3rd possibility:

 

3. ||=||

 

By the way, thanks to LH and Carl for mentioning this book. You can still get it on Amazon in paperback and kindle form. I just ordered a copy. I'm sure I'll find it useful.

then a reprint has been scheduled after several years ... the kindle may be a result from that

 

it would wasn't it that the weight isn't distributed visually well, to heavy on the outside, which suggests it may break.

 

[catopower]

LH, I don't know how lighting will affect the aesthetics of the room, given that it's open on both ends, has panels that open up the sides and that the ship can be oriented in any direction with respect to the sun. But, I do agree that the full-width across the entrances is somehow more pleasing.

 

As you point out, this does have to be balanced out against other aesthetics, including the odd shape for a 6-tatami room.

 

The last option I posted actually fixes the issue of both wanting full-width mats at the entrances, plus elimination of the four-corner intersecting point, which, to my understanding, is considered bad luck for a room. I don't consider the arrangement ideal, but it might be the most acceptable. When I built Woody Joe's Yakatabune kit, it had a 4-tatami room, which had much nicer proportions, and much easier to decide upon. That one, I arranged in a layout |=|.

 

Of course, in the case of this trade boat, there's nothing that says it would have even had tatami mats in the cabin, so this is all presumption. But, it would make sense to me, since the only passengers on a large trade boat like this were probably aristocrats. 

 

Anyway, the mats are just that. They are complete removable and can be rearranged. So, if someone didn't like an arrangement, I'm sure they could 'fix' it as needed.

 

Clare

[catopower]

Hi All,

 

Finally a post!

 

As if my work wasn't coming along slowly enough, a car accident and heavier work load managed to bring my ship modeling of all types to a standstill.

 

After nearly two months of making no progress on anything, I finally found myself in a position to move forward again on the Umibune. I didn't managed to figure out too much regarding the making of scale figures for the model, but I did finish tying the bindings on the rails. I also decided on how I wanted to finish the aft deckhouse, or yakata.

 

I basically returned to the idea of installing only lower panels on the sides of the structure. There seem to be a multitude of ways that artists and model makers have interpreted this design, so I just went with something I recall seeing in a painting. Is it accurate? There really doesn't appear to be any way to know for sure. But, it seems reasonable. In the photos below, you can see the panels before installation, as well as how they look in place on the model. I originally built these slightly oversized, allowing me to adjust them to fit.

 

 

 

As you can see from the photos, I also attached the rudder. The rudder on larger Japanese boats are fit through a hole in the back edge of a heavy beam at the stern. The Japanese did not use gudgeon straps and pintles to hold the rudder in place, but instead, rudders were held up by a rope lifting system, like Chinese boats, which allowed the rudder to be raised or lowered as needed. The hole in the large beam provided the necessary lateral support.

 

The lifting rope is attached to a hole in the top of the rudder blade and runs through a block, which is attached to the aft-most roof beam. The design of the block was not described anywhere, so I based it on a block that appeared in Woody Joe's Higakikaisen kit. This is a teardrop shaped block that apparently contains no wheel, unlike a modern-style block.

I was motivated to use this based on a comment that was made to me while visiting the Hacchoro fishing boats of Yaizu in 2016. While showing me some of the features of the Hacchoro,

 

Mr. Hiroyuki Kobayashi, one of the people who are responsible for the Hacchoro boats, told me that while the Hacchoro replicas use a standard wooden blocks in their sail gear, the Japanese didn't originally have such blocks.

 

Modern blocks on the modern Hacchoro replica.

 

He didn't elaborate, but seeing the wheel-less blocks on the Higakikaisen model suggested to me that this was the design that the Japanese originally used and is what Mr. Kobayashi was referring to. Unfortunately, I can't find any photos of that type of block, but here's the one that I made.

 

 

This type of block would most certainly have too much friction with the rope passing through it to be very efficient. But, it's very possible that its function is more to help support the rudder than to lift it up. Possibly, a few strong sailors would physically haul up on the rudder and tiller as someone hauled on the rope to take up slack and to help support the rudder's weight until the rope was tied off to beam at the stern.

 

 

In any case, I glued the stropping rope around the block and siezed it into place. The ends of the rope were simply run over the top of the beam and tied off underneath a crossbeam. I have no idea how the original was attached. Probably just passed around the beam, the way a block is fastened around the yard arm on a Western sailing ship.

 

The rudder was put into place with a rope seized through the hole in the rudder blade and rigged. To help hold the rudder in place, as it's too light to simply hang from the support rope, a hole was drilled through the rudder post and into the great beam and a pin pass through. This allowed me to keep the lifting rope taught, while keeping the rudder nicely in position.

 

More on oars and the very unusual anchors next time.

 

Clare

[druxey]

Good to see you back. Sorry to read about your accident. I hope you are fully recovered now.

[ccoyle]

Glad to see you back, Clare!

[BANYAN]

Glad to see you back Clare, and especially to hear that the accident didn't do you any major injury.  Love the details on this build of an unusual subject.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[mtaylor]

It's great to see you back and working on the build again.  I hope the accident didn't do any serious damage to you.

[catopower]

Thanks friends! Fortunately, I was uninjured, but my car was totaled and the other person was effectively uninsured, so it took a while to resolve. Then, after having to work more hours, dealing with the car rentals, getting paid, finding a new car, dealing with new payments, etc., it took my remaining free time.

 

I still am working more hours, so it has affected my ship modeling time, but at least the other issues are behind me. Mostly...

 

Clare

[mtaylor]

It's good to hear you weren't injured.  As for work, etc., life does have to come first.   Take care of yourself.

[cog]

Glad you came out in one piece, Clare, although inconvenient, the damage was merely material, and replaceable. It is a pain when you have to deal with an uninsured party, for the chance to get your due is often nill. Good to hear you resolved the travelling problem too ... The build(s) can wait, so can we

 

Cheers

[Canute]

What Carl said, Clare. Glad you're OK.

[druxey]

Ditto from me, Clare! Sorry you have to deal with an uninsured idiot.

[catopower]

Thanks everyone for your concern and good wishes!

 

All is well. My insurance company took good care of me and paid out for the car. I feel sorry for the guy who rear-ended me, as he damaged his own truck as well as my car and my insurance company is going to be wanting to recover their money. Turns out he did have an insurance company, but he didn't have the truck he was driving on his policy. Don't know if it was an error on his part or what.

 

I lost a reliable, tough little car, and had to go through the process of getting a new one – and it's a process I HATE. But, the insurance company paid out very quickly. Only now, I have car payments. But, I like the car. So, all is well.

 

Work-wise, I've just been a bit too busy, so decided to try to slow down a bit and to try to make some modeling progress. Took some time out today, as I'm feeling really worn out. But, made a little progress on the trade boat and other things.

 

 

You may recall that this boat has one large sail. I don't know if I will mount a sail on it or not. I find it rather interesting how the lowered mast is stowed. I think I have a method for creating the sail, which was made from rice-straw matting, not cloth. But, I will have other opportunities to make that, and it would probably be simpler and more realistic at a larger scale.

 

In any case, I also have the full set of oars I made. I've decided that even though the museum models I've seen show the boat equipped for sculling, that my interpretation of early scroll paintings suggest they were rowed and not sculled. Also, I started to thinking about the side-to-side motion involved in sculling, and I see only rope bindings on these oars in all cases (museum models).

 

 

I can't see how rope bindings would be able to take the amount of side-to-side pressure without loosing very quickly. If rowed, the binding would simply be to hold the oar and keep it from slipping. All the force of propulsion from the oars are taken by the beam extensions of the ship. 

 

So the next issue was how these would tie into place. Nothing too special there, except that you can't simply tie it the oar to the beam, as you'd have a hard time moving it. You need to tie a rope securely around the oar and then that rope needs to be tied to the beam. Does this difference make sense? There needs to be some freedom of movement for the oar, so the rope itself becomes something of a pivot.

 

So, I started by tying a length of line around each rope at the pivot point. I used pencil marks for measurement. I didn't feel this needed to be exact. There is an extra pencil mark, as I realized I wanted the pivot point just a little higher up on the handle. Thread cutter and pencil included for size reference.

 

 

After I tied all of the oars like this, I realized I needed more of a lashing, so I wrapped the thread around the oar and tied a second knot.

 

 

Tying the rope then onto the model, I kept the knot-side against the beam. I can't quite explain the final wrapping, as I kind of figured it out as I went. Something like wrapping both ends under the beam, over the top a couple times, making sure to stay on the opposite sides of the oar, then tying a final knot around the rope in between the oar and the beam. This turned out to be as challenging as rigging blocks on a square rigger.

 

 

Another difference between my model and modern museum models and their sculling oars is that sculling oars have a handle near the end of the oar and a line tied down to the rail or beam wraps over that to help hold the oar in place while sculling. Such lines seemed to have no purpose with this type of oar, so I didn't include them.

 

 

In this side view you can see how the oars look once they're all on the model, though I still have to add them onto the other side. I made the base just a tad too short, causing the aft-most oar to hang down just a little too much.

 

[BANYAN]

That looks great Clare, nice progress.  the ropes weren't simply as retainers if a oar came loose?  I am sure you considered this so the question is more for my education :))

 

cheers

 

Pat

[catopower]

Hi Pat,

 

It's a good question. The answer is really that I can't say for sure. I'm not aware of any archaeological evidence, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Might be in a museum somewhere. Mostly, all I have to go by are modern models and some old paintings. The paintings don't show this level of detail, and I don't know where the knowledge of the model builders comes from. I've seen nothing written about the subject, but my access to the information is extremely limited.

 

As far as I'm aware, there is nothing for the oars to come "loose" from. The ropes serve to keep the oars in place and double as full-time "retainers".

 

Note that on sculling oars that appear later on, boats do not use any form of rope retainer. The oar has a small hole that fits over a ro-gui, which is a rounded metal knob. The only rope is one that holds the handle of the oar in a proper position for sculling.

 

You can see such a rope on the model below. If used correctly, it would also serve to keep the oar from getting away, should it become dislodged and fall overboard.

 

 

This is a model of a water taxi, called a chokibune. A similar boat is detailed in Douglas Brooks' book Japanese Wooden Boatbuilding.

 

 

 

[catopower]

Well, tragedy struck when I took my model to one of the local club meetings. I don't know how it happened, but I had the model in a travel box to help keep it from getting damaged. It made it just fine through a 114 mile round trip to one meeting. The next meeting, more like 30 miles one-way, I'm pretty sure it survived just fine. It wasn't until it was sitting in the box in our model shop (I tried to keep it out of harm's way), that it looks to me like someone leaned on the box and broke up the aft structure.

 

It's not the first time that taking a model to a meeting, particularly one stored in a box to protect it, appears to have been damaged in this way. I have one model that I just never got around to repairing.

 

Fortunately, when I got it home, I found that most of the damage was done to various glue joints. No wood was actually broken. So, I had a small stack of puzzle pieces to fit back together. But, all in all, I was able to make the repairs pretty quickly, and with visible signs of the damage. 

 

However, this did keep me from finishing the oars before I had to leave for the NRG Conference. So, I simply took it with me, along with some tools, glue, etc. Since I was driving there anyway, taking the extra things was no problem. I got to the location in the evening and took the model up to my room, added the remaining oars, and it was on display the next morning!

 

Here was the model the night before the accident, displayed at the meeting of the South Bay Model Shipwrights at the Los Altos Public Library. It is shown here next to a model of a club model of a Viking ship in the same scale.

 

The model was one of three scratch built Japanese "wasen" models that I brought to the NRG Conference. That's the Japanese Wooden Boatbuilding book by Douglas Brooks, which I used for the Urayasu Bekabune model in the center. On the left is my Hozu river boat.

 

And, finally, the completed Kamakura period Sea Boat...

 

 

鎌倉時代の海船

 

 

After seeing the model on display at the conference, I decided to officially call this project complete. Being that this is part of an ongoing research project, I'll always be adding some small details to it. I could either leave it as permanently incomplete, or simply call it "done" and sneak little additions to it over time. So, I'm opting for the latter option.

 

I did feel that the model was a bit small for this display. At 1/50-scale, it's 21-1/2" long. If I make another, which is very likely, I think I'll opt for something like 1/30-scale, making it up to 35" long. Of course, the larger the scale, the more details I'll need to add, and the better job I'll have to do. 

 

In any case, this has been a test bed for reconstructing this type of boat. I think my next step is to get a first-hand look at a couple of the Japanese museum models built of this type of boat. That's going to take some savings and fundraising again to make the next trip to Japan!

 

 

Edited October 31, 2018 by catopower

[wefalck]

Met some Japanese modellers of the association THE ROPE (www.theropetokyo.org) a couple of weeks ago in Rochefort (France). They also brought some Japanese boats (models) with them. These guys may be a good contact, say for pictures of museum models etc.

 

Such incidents, as you described above, make me always weary of taking models out of the house ...

Edited October 31, 2018 by wefalck

[catopower]

Hello Wefalck,

 

Yes, damage to models is a great deterrent to club meetings. Much safer to blog about them. But, I'm trying to help keep the local clubs going, so I try to take things if I can. Still, I do have models that I simply won't bring to certain meetings due to their locations, distance from parking spot, complexity of model, etc.

 

Thanks for the link. I'm actually in regular contact with two members of The Rope Tokyo that went to Rochefort. One of them has been helping me obtain information from Japan and to make contacts. I did some online research once and found an obscure Excel spreadsheet, in Japanese. I recognized some of the information on it and translated enough of it to discover that it was an old list of museum model dispositions.

 

I found several models listed in a regional city museum and asked my Rope contact about it. Next thing I knew, he had contacted the museum, found that the models were in storage, and he and two other members arranged to take photos of the models. I felt pretty good in being able to help them dig up some things they weren't aware of. 

 

He has since helped me many more times, visiting museum models that I've discovered, and sending me information, photos, and help me establish contacts. VERY helpful. 

 

I hope I can visit one of their annual model exhibits, which usually take place in the Spring. It's yet one of many things on my list of visits to Japan!

 

 

[wefalck]

Yep, they seem to be nice guys. As I have been just elected chairman of the German association (https://www.arbeitskreis-historischer-schiffbau.de/profil2/), I am in the process of establishing links with THE ROPE.

[Tigersteve]

Awesome models!

Steve

[Richmond]

Great work and a very interesting log.

[druxey]

Well done, Clare. I'm sorry I missed seeing your models at the Conference. I'm also sorry that you had damage to the one model.  Remind me, when we do meet, about how someone managed to damage not one but two of my models on the same night some years ago!

[BANYAN]

Sorry to hear of the damage Clare; but she does look great.  A good decision to call it quits otherwise you will forever be updating .

 

cheers

 

Pat

[catopower]

Thank you all for the kind words!

 

Druxey, your comment about someone damaging two of your models on the same night is making me cringe! Perhaps I'll have to hear the story over a drink... or two!

 

Also appreciate the support on the decision to end the project. I've decided to try building a very unusual subject based on Douglas Brooks's work: A Taraibune, or a Tub Boat of Sado Island. This is such a simple boat that I don't think there's much material for a build log. I've already pieced together the wood for the bottom and cut staves. The hardest part is probably going to be making braided hoops to fit around the "hull".

 

What I probably WILL create a build log for is a small Gozabune, which is a type of highly ornate official yacht used by daimyo and their officials. There are two that appear in Souvenirs de Marine by Paris. I've already got a big start on it, so I'll be back filling the details of the build to this point.

 

 

[Landrotten Highlander]

2 hours ago, catopower said:

What I probably WILL create a build log for is a small Gozabune, which is a type of highly ornate official yacht used by daimyo and their officials. There are two that appear in Souvenirs de Marine by Paris. I've already got a big start on it, so I'll be back filling the details of the build to this point.

Great, can't wait

[Landlubber Mike]

Very nice work Clare on a unique, and interesting subject!  Congratulations!