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

[wefalck]

I have always been fascinated by Japanese carpentry and in my younger years was reading a lot about their art and culture. However, some 30 or so years ago there seems to have been little information in Western languages on their boats and I found them rather complex and different from ours. So I never attempted anything in this direction. Good to see that someone tries to understan them !

[cog]

9 hours ago, wefalck said:

Good to see that someone tries to understan them !

It is not so much understanding the boats/ships, it's more about understanding the Japaneses spirit/mentality

[BANYAN]

Hi Clare; I do not know how I missed this one - I hope you don't mind a late interloper looking in.  Great subject vessel and a very nice build of such an unusual modelling subject.  I have read through with great interest and look forward to your future installments.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[wefalck]

7 hours ago, cog said:

It is not so much understanding the boats/ships, it's more about understanding the Japaneses spirit/mentality

Not sure we can ever do this ... but we can try to understand, how and perhaps why certain constructional detail are done in a certain way.

 

There is also the effect of historical policies that forbade Japanes ship to venture further out into the high seas. I seem to remember that there were edicts that limited the seaworthiness of boats and ships. In consequence there has also been very little, if any, echange with other peoples with regard to shipbuilding techniques. I wonder, whether shipbuilder would have examined (or have been allowed to) the occassional Chinese wreck washed up on the Japanese shores or the European ships and boats.

[cog]

wefalck,

 

You should read "The Genius of Japanese Carpentry". Some things fell in to place for me when I red it, in its way very enlightening. As do some books on their martial arts, the methods used in building their houses etc.

Japanese didn't get much authorisation, they mostly got ordered, I cannot imagine a feudal lord to give a boat builder any leeway to explore ... and then there is a very strong tradition

[wefalck]

I do have indeed one book on Japanese house-building and a host of books on Japanese art. As I said, there seems to have been a variety of books published on Japanese carpentry including boatbuilding over the past 20 years or so.

[cog]

So it is, in the end the value depends on the measure of knowledge of the writer ... nowadays there are to many so called "experts". If Japanese, the willingness to share all that knowledge is imperative

[catopower]

Great comments. 

 

I agree that it helps to have some sense of the Japanese mentality. And, Japanese carpentry is pretty amazing.

 

But, I think that boatbuilding takes a slightly different path than carpentry. There's a different sense of practicality for the builders of the workboats of the day-to-day fishermen and cargo boatmen. There is some amazing craftsmanship, but I think this is mixed with the need to be able build and to make repairs quickly and simply. 

 

There's actually very little information available about Japanese boatbuilding. Douglas Brooks's book Japanese Wooden Boatbuilding, is one of the few works, in English or Japanese, that gives great insight into the techniques of small boatbuilding. I have found two books in Japanese, published by museums, that discuss boatbuilding techniques in some detail. Both are out of print.

 

I also have about a half-dozen books written in Japanese about Japanese wooden boats. But, most books are overviews of the coastal transports of the 17-19th century. The information on anything else is pretty sparse. In english, I've only found what's in the Osprey books, which is, at times, misleading and laughable. 

 

The way I've found to best understand their construction is to build them or model them... or to attempt to. Building Japanese kits really does teach you something of how the boats were constructed. Particularly the Tosa Wasen kit from Thermal Studio and the Higaki Kaisen kit from Woody Joe. And then scratch building one is great in that you discover how much you DON'T know. 

 

 

[druxey]

Great comments and insight, Clare!

[catopower]

Thanks, Druxey. It's nice to see some discussion on the subject.

 

But, since it's not a build log without photos of the build. Here are another couple pics of the model that were actually taken before the bindings were added to the rails.

 

 

 

I don't know yet if I'll have the mast up with the sail raised or not.

 

At this point in history, the Japanese did not use cloth sails. Instead, they used straw mat. They were bulky and heavy, particularly if they got wet. I'm not sure what the best way is to simulate them. Probably, I'll just end up sewing a sail of coarse cloth. Would be nice to see the rigging, though I like illustrating the way the mast was stowed in the lowered position. Maybe I'll have to make TWO models...

 

Things left to do:

• Finishing the deck house details
• Making a sail and yards
• Making oars
• Making anchors
• Mounting the rudder
• Rigging (if the mast is raised)

Also, it be really nice to have a figure in period costume to give a sense of scale and historical context. I've been experimenting with figure making, but not very successfully yet. And then, specifically, 13th century costume. We'll see...

 

 

Edited May 24, 2018 by catopower

[wefalck]

BTW in the last few numbers of NEPTUNIA there has been a series of articles (albeit in French) on traditional Japanese boats: https://www.aamm.fr/neptunia/derniers_numeros

 

For understanding boats from other cultural areas it is also important to understand how they were used and handled. Often such boats have features that look anything but functional to our eyes. I find it rather difficult to model such features - I have to understand the function in order to reproduce a part, whether as a drawing or as a model.

 

As to sails: I have tried to reproduce sails woven from strips of pandanus-leaves on South Pacific craft by soaking 'silk-span' in acrylic paint. But this was in a 1:90 scale. At a larger scale a heavier silk may do and perhaps some dry-brushing over a base paint in order to enhance the structure. One could also think of a fine wire-mesh soaked in paint. It also would depend on the kind of weave that was used for these mat-sails.

Edited May 24, 2018 by wefalck

[catopower]

Wefalk, thanks for posting the link. That is a very nicely done series that looks at traditional Japanese boats through the art of Japanese block prints.

 

The author of that series, Jean Pierre Mélis, a Japanese ship modeler, Masami Sekiguchi, and I, actually had several email discussions about the boats in the prints for his article. I have to admit it was mostly Mr. Sekiguchi providing the information to questions for Mr. Mélis and myself. But, a small photo of my Tosa Wasen model is included in one of the articles.

 

You make a very good point about understanding the function of features. That's been a big issue and a stumbling point in my projects. Without that understanding, it's very easy to misinterpret something you're seeing in a drawing, painting, etc. And, often, a feature is only known from a written description.

[cog]

wefalk,

You do make very good points, the things needed to reflect upon.

 

2 hours ago, wefalck said:

As to sails: I have tried to reproduce sails woven from strips of pandanus-leaves on South Pacific craft by soaking 'silk-span' in acrylic paint. But this was in a 1:90 scale. At a larger scale a heavier silk may do and perhaps some dry-brushing over a base paint in order to enhance the structure. One could also think of a fine wire-mesh soaked in paint. It also would depend on the kind of weave that was used for these mat-sails.

Have you ever tried the material used for the silk screen printing on cloth (tissue)

 

2 hours ago, catopower said:

You make a very good point about understanding the function of features. That's been a big issue and a stumbling point in my projects. Without that understanding, it's very easy to misinterpret something you're seeing in a drawing, painting, etc. And, often, a feature is only known from a written description.

It can be hard to build something if you do not know the workings, and in some cases whom will use/wield it? It will probably turn out to be a poor copy, not an entity. Other items might not require the knowledge due to their nature ..

 

Love the way your build develops Clare

[wefalck]

I didn't need the silk screen yet, but I know that you can get it in calibrated mesh-counts.

[Ryzuhr]

This build is excellent and very educational. I have always been fascinated with Japanese history and architecture. I recently joined MSW and did not expect to find that I also love Japanese boatmaking and carpentry. I will have to pick up The Genius of Japanese Carpentry and give it a read. It would be an awesome addition to my book collection.

 

Looking forward to seeing how you finish this off!

[mwb]

Hi Clare,

 

I've been absent for a bit and just tuned in to your build. An interesting subject and very nicely done. Thanks for sharing.

[catopower]

Thanks mwb, Andrew, oh and forgot to say thanks and welcome to Pat!

 

I appreciate the discussion on sails, Carl, Wefalk. It has definitely gotten me thinking. Even if rice-straw mat is as much as 1/4" thick (and I'm sure it's much thinner than that in order to be able to roll it up and store it or raise sail), in scale, I'd have to use something no more than 0.005" or about 0.13 mm. A thin piece of cloth will easily exceed that. 

 

The printer paper I use is about this thickness. The Silkspan-type stuff I have is about 0.003".

 

I might also try using a piece of drafting linen, as a friend of mine gave me a roll of it that he had sitting around. With only one small piece needed for this model, it might be the perfect use for it.

 

I was originally going to go with a piece of cloth with fine machine stitching delineating the edges of the rectangular straw mat panels. I'll think on it for a bit. Still more construction to do yet.

[cog]

Have you thought about shoji paper, or for that matter any kind of rice paper (i.e. thickness-wise) I've got a hardback Lord of the ring edition with all three books and maps, in a single volume, about 8" x 10" printed on rice paper no thicker than 1.4". It does require some care to turn the pages ...

[wefalck]

I gather the key point is to somehow reproduce the somewhat coarse structure (in comparison to woven fabric) of the rice-straw mats. What is a detriment in representing small-scale sails, could be used here advantageously: the woven structure of silk-span, silk-screen, or the likes.

 

In the past, I did put together sails from individual panels (this has been discussed several times on this forum already). I spread out a suitable piece of cloth in a (make-shift) frame and soaked in varnish. I used cellulose varnish the last time, but would now switch to acrylics because of their greater flexibility. The reason I used cellulose varnish was that by adding more varnish, you can kind of 'weld' the panels together. That is ok for set sails, but the cellulose varnish is brittle and that makes it difficult to fold sails. The silk-span soaked in varnish when dry was cut into strips the width of the panels and then stuck together with minimal overlapping. Doublings and so on were added in the same fashion. For this I am working on a piece of cardboard with the sail drawing stuck to it and the whole covered in cling-film. Once the sail is complete, the bolt-rope is stuck with PVA glue or acrylic varnish - that is for Western sails. I believe sails made from matting do not have bolt-ropes (at least in the South Pacific they don't have).

 

Instead of acrylic varnish, you may want to use acrylic paint right away to give the sail the right colour. It would also be possible to spray-paint the sail before adding the bolt-rope, if needed. As noted before, I would then give the sail a wash with a very dilute darker paint, so that the paint accumulates in the 'holes' of the weave, or dry-brush it with a lighter colour to highlight the threads (strips of straw as it was). Another way to apply highlights is to rub a white colour-pecil lightly over the sail.

 

[catopower]

cog, you and Wefalck are giving me great ideas that I want to experiment with. 

 

I've never really considered rice paper. I always thought it a bit odd to use as it's slick on one side and rough on the other. I have a small roll of it that someone gave me. 

 

Wefalck, I like the possibilities in painting the sails with acrylics. I've never done it before, but it's something I may have to try out.

 

 

[catopower]

I've posted a photo of this model before. But, here's a close up of the sails on it. This is a 1/10-scale model.

 

 

I've never seen sails like this on other period Japanese models or paintings, and I don't know enough about it to say that it's right or wrong. It might be the ends of the mat fibers are left long, so they can easily be tied together. In any case, I probably won't try to simulate it.

 

 

[wefalck]

Strange weave, looks, as if long stalk have been used in one direction and something more pliable in the other. I gather the rough vertical stichings hold together different panels.

 

I have simulated such stichings on silk-span using very narrow stiching, nearly zero step-width, on a zig-zag-stiching sewing machine. In order to stabilise the flimsy silk-span, I attached it with a few blobs of glue to a piece of silkpaper (copy paper) outside the sail area. Once the stiching is done, the paper can be ripped out with caution.

[catopower]

46 minutes ago, wefalck said:

Strange weave, looks, as if long stalk have been used in one direction and something more pliable in the other. I gather the rough vertical stichings hold together different panels.

That's what I'm thinking.

 

Now, not to abandon this model, but I did want to mention here that I've made some mental breakthroughs on some Japanese boatbuilding issues. And my next project, for which I'll start a blog, is the Gozabune, which is a term for a highly ornate boat used by Daimyo for entertaining and to carry or escort high ranking officials. Basically, a State yacht. These are basically dressed up warships. In this case, I'm looking at building something called a Kobaya, or small fast boat, though this one is not particularly small. We're fortunate in that a French officer recorded measurements of several Japanese vessels in 1868, at the beginning of the Meiji restoration, and it appears in the French tome Le Souvenirs de Marine.

 

 

As is often the case, I don't start blogging about a project until I've done some experimental building, which often turns into a partially started (or completed) project before I'm confident that I'm on the right track. There is a nice model of this in the French National Maritime Museum. Also, a Japanese man by the name of Yukio Nakayama has made a huge range of models of Japanese watercraft in 1/70 scale and has made many similar Kobaya. His models are displayed at museums and other locations a few times a year.

[wefalck]

Admiral Pâris, the then director of the Musée de la Marine, had models made of almost all the vessels shown in the 'Souvenirs'. They were rarely on show, however, in recent years.

[catopower]

Wind screens

 

The rectangular openings of the large yakata, or deck house, apparently had fold down screens. The exact construction of these aren't specified anywhere I could find, but they appear to be something akin to shoji screens, or the may have been solid wooden panels that lower when the weather is bad. I chose to make them like shoji screens.

 

I created a frame and then added a wooden lattice structure, kind of like large gratings. But, rather than make them interlocking, notched battens, I just made them very thin and made them simply overlap. The lattice is then covered on the outside by rice paper.

 

 

 

There were six of these panels needed, in all. They would normally be hinged, but I just glued them into place. You can't see where the hinges would be anyway. 

 

The open panels would also need some way to stay open. I decided that these would be hooked to the rafters of the roof overhang. I decided to simulate this by attaching a thin piece of wire that just pokes up into the underside of the roof. Again, at this scale, you can't really tell that they're just standing wire.

 

 

Something I didn't really know about shoji screens until I was researching for work on Woody Joe's Yakatabune kit, is that the traditional shoji screens have the paper only on one side. The "nice" side is the inside of the room with the nice wooden lattice pattern showing. The "rough" shows only the uninterrupted paper. So, the paper is glued here onto the tops of the open panels. So, you can't see the lattice work unless you look up from underneath the model.

 

At the ends of the yakata, are likely simple cloth or maybe bamboo curtain. Looking at various paintings, it seems that these would most likely roll up. I believe the term for these are noren. That's the name for cloth doorway room dividers. I don't know if these are the same, but I assume they fall into that category.

 

I experimented a bit with different ways to represent these. In the 13th-14th centuries, and on a ship, I figured that this would be a plain design. Most noren are really visual dividers. They are normally split cloth and very lightweight, so they don't block the wind or anything. They seem to give more of a sense of division of space, marking an entrance.

 

I planned to show them simply rolled up, so I experimented with printing a color or pattern on paper and rolling it up, but I didn't like the results. I then used a piece of silkspan tissue paper and painted it using very thin water based acrylic. To color it, I tried out a set of gouache paints that I wanted to test out for various purposes. These are basically opaque watercolors, and they worked really well on the paper. They added no thickness to the paper, and I was able to roll the paper up and tie it off to mount in the doorways on the model.

 

The model doesn't have much color, so I just chose a simple green for the noren. In the following photo, in addition to the lattice work on the inside of the window panels, you can see the rolled up noren at the ends of the yakata.

 

 

Here's another view at the forward end of the yakata. 

 

 

 

[druxey]

Lovely work, as well as educational reading! Thank you, Clare.

[mtaylor]

Druxey beat me too it.   Fascinating and the education on these vessels is inspiring.   

 

 

[catopower]

Thanks for the nice comments Druxey, Mark. As long as you don't think that I already know all of this stuff. I'm mostly one step ahead of each phase of construction. Mostly. Sometimes, I'm only one step ahead of the next glue joint...

 

 

[druxey]

Either way, you are ahead of us!

[BANYAN]

Very nice work Clare; this is a very interesting construction.

 

cheers

 

Pat