Links
Websites based in the U.S.
My old friend cabinetmaker and tall ship sailor Don Minnerly has two sites:
http://www.theageofsail.com/index.htm
http://furniture.theageofsail.com/index.html
Harvey Golden is a friend who has done amazing work on the subject of Arctic kayaks:
http://www.traditionalkayaks.com/
My friend Bruce Whiting's business page in Portland, Oregon:
http://www.ospreycustomsawing.com/index.html
Portland Japanese Garden, not to be missed if you are in Portland:
http://www.japanesegarden.com/garden.html
Paul Kotta's tea page, a useful source for good tea:
http://www.mellowmonk.com
A very nice gallery of Japanese antiques:
http://www.shibuihome.com/
Len Brackett builds Japanese style houses and has a wonderful links page of his own:
http://www.eastwindinc.com/index.html
This California store is a great source for Japanese furniture hardware:
http://www.misugidesigns.com/
List of books on Japanese woodworking by this California group:
http://daikudojo.org/Archive/gallery_books/
WoodenBoat magazine:
http://www.woodenboat.com/
I built the sail ferry Weatherwax working with Andy Davis and the gang at Tri-Coastal Marine, Inc.
http://www.tricoastal.com
After giving a lecture at Trinity College (Hartford, CT) someone wrote me with this blog site. Chris Hall lives in Western Massachusetts and has an amazing background in Japanese woodworking, architecture, etc., and blogs at The Carpentry Way:
http://thecarpentryway.blogspot.com
Websites based in Japan
The Nippon Foundation supports philanthropic initiatives around the world:
http://www.nippon-foundation.or.jp/eng/
My friends Takumi and Yoshiko have been canoeing all over Japan, sell candles at festivals and take part in peace ceremonies. They keep blogs of their activities:
http://hacarame.com/canoe/index.html
A gorgeous website about the mountain regions of Ishikawa prefecture:
http://shofu.pref.ishikawa.jp/shofu/shirayama/english/index.html
This Japanese opthamologist has been blogging about boats:
http://diary.jp.aol.com/556hcmcxuny/
Blog about Sado Island and tub boats:
http://michimarum.iza.ne.jp/blog/entry/177274/
KAZI is Japan's largest and oldest boating magazine:
http://www.pacwow.com/marine/kazi/kz.html
Woodworking school in Takayama, Japan:
http://www.takumijuku.com/english/index.htm
Basic overview of Japanese culture:
http://www.wanogakkou.com/culture/500000.html
Atsushi Doi is a good friend and an enthusiastic amateur boat builder. He has invented a new type of sculling oar for small boats:
http://www.lares.dti.ne.jp/~doi-a-md/
Monotsukuri Daigaku is a new Japanese university devoted to craft training:
http://www.iot.ac.jp/english/index.html
The famous monkeys of Nagano, who use a hot spring, are visible on this live webcam:
http://www.jigokudani-yaenkoen.co.jp/livecam/monkey/index.htm
One of Okinawa's last boat builders runs a small hostel and boat museum on Ishigaki Island:
http://www.h4.dion.ne.jp/~hara21/otomodachi.htm
Traditional Crafts Association, Japan has an interesting gallery in Tokyo and supports craftspeople from throughout Japan:
http://www.kougei.or.jp/english/promotion.html
Koji' san's site:
Timberline Small Craft
http://minamiizu.net/timberline/
This Japanese group is building reed boats:
http://www.kamuna.net
Hatano-san is a good friend and has been doing remarkable work documenting the vanishing culture of the Agano River valley in Niigata Prefecture:
http://www.hanga-cobo.jp/hatano/
Osamu Monden and Kyoko Miyazawa are filmmakers in Tokyo who make documentaries on the culture of the sea:
http://www.umikoubou.co.jp
A Japanese diplomat has built this maritime dictionary. I have contributed my glossary of boat building terms to it:
http://www.oceandictionary.net
The Wooden Boat Center in Takashima, Japan:
http://www.okubiwako.net/wbc/index.html
and related Wooden Boat Builders Meeting homepage:
http://woodenboat.jp/
Here is eight seconds of me in Tokyo sculling the chokkibune that I built:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX8MFCfGPnM
You can see more videos of the traditional Japanese sculling oar, the ro, by searching YouTube under "ro-scull."
Japanese Museums
Lake Biwa Museum
http://www.lbm.go.jp/index.html
Museum of Maritime Science
http://www.funenokagakukan.or.jp/
Osaka Maritime Museum
http://www.jikukan.or.jp/english/index.html
Seto Inland Sea Folklife Museum
http://www.pref.kagawa.jp/setorekishi/
Toba Sea Folk Museum
http://www.umihaku.com/index2.html
Urayasu Folk Museum
http://kyoiku.city.urayasu.chiba.jp/hakubutukan/index.html
Tokyo Furniture Museum
http://www.fuchu.or.jp/~kagu/museum/index.htm
The Takenaka Carpentry Tools Museum
http://dougukan.jp/archive/eng/index.html
Tokyo Kite Museum:
http://www.tako.gr.jp/eng/museums_e/tokyo_e.html
Other sites from around the world
A U.K. based puppet theatre learned about tub boats from my site and developed a play based on the tub boats of Sado Island.
http://www.angelhearttheatre.com/page3/page3.html