the thinking hand
exhibit
Curators / Authors
Mark Mulligan
Yukio Lippit
Exhibit Design
Mark Mulligan - Lead
Alexander Watchman
Alex Timmer
Brett Keese
Exhibit Fabrication
Alex Timmer - Lead
Brett Keese
Alexander Watchman
Alexander Meyers
Greg Logan
Aaron Menninga
Thomas Sherman
Charlotte Lipschitz
Patrick Burke
Harvard GSD
Cambridge, MA
2014
“Japanese woodworking tools marry function and beauty. Shaped in a variety of striking forms and prized by carpenters worldwide for their extreme precision, they show how everyday objects can be shaped by culture and practice over many centuries. A closer look at the context of their creation and use reveals intriguing glimpses of the traditional daiku (大工), or master carpenter, and his world. More than a mere craftsman, the daiku combined
the roles of designer and builder of all architecture in Japan until well into modern times. To perform these roles, the daiku needed to master a diverse array of specialized tools; with years of practice, these tools became extensions of his hands, providing direct physical feedback about the task at hand.
In January 2014, the Takenaka Carpentry Tools Museum donated a set of sixty-two traditional carpentry tools to the Harvard Graduate School of Design as a resource for architecture students to learn about the rich traditions of Japanese wooden architecture. The tools donated to the GSD represent a base set that would have been employed by a daiku working in the Kansai region of Japan in the early 20th-century – a period known among experts as a Golden Age of tool-making, prior to the widespread introduction of power tools and industrial production. Though individual pieces have been drawn from several different sources, all of them bear the imprint of their owner’s use: a patina born of interaction between muscle, steel, stone, and wood.
How did the mind of the daiku shape these tools? How did these tools shape the mind of the daiku? And what kinds of insights do tools offer into Japan’s traditional cultures of building? These are questions we explore in “The Thinking Hand.””
-Mark Mulligan
-Yukio Lippit