Japanese Architectural Texts
Japanese Architectural Texts Some years ago I purchased a number of old Japanese texts on architecture, furniture, textiles and carpentry. This was way before the current western interest in traditional Japanese woodworking. A few of the texts I sold and some I kept. Being the former librarian that I am, those I sold were first scanned for my archives. While organizing said archives, I came upon those scans. Over on Reddit there is a subreddit r/translator , the place for having text and images translated to and from whatever language is unknown. At first I wasn't sure if anyone there could translate some of the older texts. Not a problem. There are a few Redditors there who took the challenges and came through! Lucky me, lucky you. The translation of the image at the head of this post reads: "Hiwada" or "Hikawa", referring to the bark of the Hinoki Cypress tree. Traditionally, it is used on the roofs of temples and shrines. However in this image, it appears a...