Coming all the way to Japan we did not know what to expect from this barn raising, but we tried to prepare for every eventuality. We sent a long list of needed tools ahead of us, along with photos of each of them so that we wouldn’t be in the middle of the raising and find we need a tool that is not available.
Upon arrival we got a better picture of what the barn raising site was to be like. We are in the Tokyo –Yokohama metroplex and everything is tight. Houses are built one on top of another. There are high rises everywhere and single family homes are modest compared to those in America. Some homes are only twelve feet wide and twenty feet long but three stories high. The barn is going to be a kind of community center in about a five-acre development.
One of my first thoughts was: “What would those timber framers back in 1825 have thought if you wandered by as they hewed this barn frame and in passing said to them: ‘Say, in about two hundred years from now, your barn will be taken down and stood back up for another life around the world in Japan!’” They would have probably thrown a well-aimed trunnel at you and told you to take your nonsense somewhere else. And then as you walked away, you could have added, “And they’ll get there by flying across the ocean through the air!!!”
And then you could expect the trunnels to really start flying!
From the start the Japanese carpenters who worked alongside us were very friendly and quick learners. Japan has a very old tradition of timber framing. Some of their existing timber frame temples and houses are hundreds of years old. But nearly all of this has been lost with the advent of modern two-by-four dimensional lumber.
On Saturday we set out all the barn parts and assembled the bents only to realize that the Japanese warehouse workers thought our short wind braces were scrap wood and used them as supports under the beams and did not deliver them all to the job site. A quick count turned up that we were missing about four braces and Joe set about cutting replacements out of the extra wood we sent. Fortunately they did not mistake any bigger beams for scrap!
On the day of the raising we all assembled at 9 am in the midst of a heat wave. Being from Texas, we are used to the heat, but it was the humidity that got to us. Back home we knew we could raise this size barn in a day with an experienced crew, but in Japan we were prepared for a prolonged raising with our novice crew. Were we ever surprised! By noon all five bents were stood and we started to wrestle the top plates on.
As you can see from the photos, each new building is encircled with scaffolding. This is the way it is here for safety reasons. But it sure did make it easy to raise a barn. Instead of balancing up on a ladder, you could walk up the scaffolding and reach the plates.
By four in the afternoon we had all four of the plates on. The purlin plates were supported by canted queen posts, which can be tricky at times. Next came the roof rafters. This was going to take Matt (who had over stressed his back by this time) and Joe, to sit on the purlin plates as we craned the rafter pairs over to them. We thought of cutting lose our Japanese crew to go home after what had already been a hot and long day of barn raising and we would finish this part, though we were pretty tired. But they would not have it and they blessed us and surprised us by taking over. Now it was their turn and they were in their element. Six of them got up high and the crane began swinging those rafters into place. We hardly had to say a word!
What’s more is that they pulled out a nifty, vice-like gadget made especially for lifting rafters onto roofs by crane. We came to find that the Japanese have invented a gadget for every task and this was a most welcome gadget! Within about an hour our Japanese co-workers had all the trussed rafters up and nailed down!
Everyone did what comes after a hard day of barn raising. We congratulated each other on a job well and safely done, especially our new friends. We were all excited and pleased with having been part of something so special. But we want to also remember our co-craftsmen who did the restoration on the timber frame back in Texas and especially the workers who dismantled the barn in New York, which was the really hard and dirty work: Steve, Erhart, John, Mike, Joe and Jessica. And a special thanks to John Dolmas who delivered the barn all the way from New York to Texas.
After many deep bows to one another we parted ways with our Japanese friends, hoping that someday soon we will work together again.
Taka Yamaguchi: Our friend and interpreter. It was over 100 degrees today and drinks were much appreciated!
One of the many friendly and helpful people we are working with
Matt ready to get to work
The urban setting is posing some fun challenges. Laying out the bents meant maneuvering each piece with the crane in tight spaces.
The construction site. With only three feet between buildings our crane operator needs steady hands
Three of the guys erecting the scaffolding and Kaza, Takas business partner.
Some comfy looking traditional footwear!
A piece of Americana finds its way to Tokyo, Japan where it will find a new life as a community center
In this age of easy global communication and travel, new frontiers are being opened everyday, and Heritage Restorations, based in Waco, Texas, is about to undertake a unique project that will open yet another of those untried frontiers. Not only is West meeting East, but Old West is becoming New East this month when Heritage Restorations travels to Japan and rebuilds an historic 1840 timber frame barn from New York state that they shipped overseas in May.
Recycling historic American barns has become a popular theme in building new sustainable American homes, and now this trend appears to be catching on in the Orient where there is a long timber frame building tradition, but few ancient buildings available for recycling.
The barn that is the object of this first adventure is a unique “swing beam” barn from the Mohawk Valley of New York, which measures thirty feet by forty feet. The barn derives its name from the massive 28” by thirty-foot long swing beam, hand hewed from virgin timbers, that allowed for the early settlers to thresh grain inside the barn with a tethered ox.
Heritage Restorations will be sending a crew of master timber framers who along with local Japanese craftsmen will revive the art of ‘Barn Raising’. The finished building will be used for a community center in Tokyo, Japan.
About Heritage Restorations:
Heritage Restorations has been preserving fine examples of timber frame barns, cabins, house and mills from the 1700’s and 1800’s for conversion into homes and offices with all the conveniences of modern structures since 1996.
Each building is documented and carefully disassembled before being brought to our workshop in central Texas. The frame is then cleaned and completely restored. Repairs and restorations are done by our craftsmen using matching hand-hewn timbers, traditional timber frame joinery, and the hand tools used by the original craftsmen.
Caleb Tittley, director of public relations
Heritage Restorations
254.716.1013
Heritagebarns.com