In 2019 I was approached by the owner of the Kumagawa Kudari, a downriver tour boat company located in Hitoyoshi, Kumamoto on the Kumagawa River. He had recently purchased the company and wanted to renew his fleet of six thirty-six foot wooden boats. His last boatbuilder was 83 years old and unable to take on the project, so he proposed that I come to Hitoyoshi and build two new boats, returning in a few years to build two more, until he had a new fleet.

COVID hit in early 2020 and Japan shut down to outside visitors. Then in the summer of 2020 the Kumagawa saw some of its worst flooding in history. The company’s shoreside buildings were destroyed and all six boats were damaged beyond repair. The owner then asked me to plan on building six new boats at a different venue. In 2007 I had built a new tour boat for Ritsurin Koen, a Japanese garden in Takamatsu. Then I worked for a company called Yuuwamokusou, located just east of the city. I approached them to be my partner in the river boat project, and they agreed. It would take another two years to secure a building site, materials, and a visa for me and my assistants, but I built the six boats over three sessions between October of 2022 and December of 2023.

The Kumagawa Kudari has been taking tourists down the Kumagawa River since the early 1900s. The boats have remained largely unchanged throughout its history. The river is a fast-running, white water stream and the skill of the boatmen (to date all have been men) is paramount. In fact for many years all the boatmen traditionally came from one small neighborhood in Hiteyoshi.

One unusual feature is the bow oarsman, who mans an oar projecting ahead of the boat as it rushes downstream. Their job is to turn the bow quickly to navigate sharp bends in the river. The position is extremely precarious and it takes three years to master.

Another interesting feature of these boats, as well as many other types I have seen on rivers in Kyushu, is a hollow in the bottom planking. The elderly boatman who advised us as we measured a surviving boat in 2022 said this hollow was absolutely necessary, as it trapped air and gave the boat speed. This makes sense as this would reduce the wetted surface of the hull and reduce friction.

My assistants and I built the six new boats working in a rented shop in Sanuki City, Kagawa, nine hours away by truck from Hitoyoshi. We used a western system of temporary molds but otherwise the construction was all traditional. The bottoms of the boats were fiberglassed to protect from abrasion of the rocky river bottom.

You can see a series of videos shot during the project by clicking the YouTube icon at the bottom of this page. You can read my article in Mortise & Tenon magazine about the project here.