As always, the images in this post will look better in a browser.
Mud dried, garden in and roof on. The sukiya garden fence is finally finished.
Complex scribes between every post, beam, rafter, and stone; hewn beams, natural columns where errors were unfixable; parts of chestnut, sugi, bamboo, hinoki, granite, and plaster. Three apprentices, one journeyman, two master carpenters, a plasterer, and a gardener. And almost a year of work, small bites at a time, until it was done.
Later, a door would be added to the low opening, revealing a path to a garden structure.
Given my experience level, I had no right to be near a project like this. The only reason I was allowed to contribute at all is that Jon and Yama are exceedingly generous in letting apprentices experience not only cutting but the types of projects most carpentry apprentices wait years and years to have the privilege to touch, let alone cut. They will probably never understand how grateful I am to have cut even a few joints on this frame.
I look forward to visiting in the Fall. And then, watching this project age gracefully as the years pass by.
More photos below:
