指物

Sashimono joinery

Sashimono is a general term for the joinery technique of assembling wooden boards or rods without nails to create furniture and other items such as shelves, boxes, and fittings. It can also refer to items made using this technique. Mortise and tenon joinery is central to sashimono. A joinery craftsman, or sashimono-shi, creates a tenon (a protruding piece) on one piece of wood and a corresponding mortise (hole) in another, fitting the pieces together to form complex shapes. In sashimono, the process of joining two pieces of material together is called tsugite, ‘making joints’. Different configurations are used depending on the purpose, whether for joining boards to boards, beams to beams, or boards to beams.
 

梻嵌装長方箱

Inlaid box of Japanese ash

Kenji Suda
Japanese ash, granadilla, sycamore maple, nashi pear, black persimmon, urushi lacquer 

2018
 

Crafted by ‘Living National Treasure’, Suda Kenji, this piece combines five carefully selected types of wood using sashimono joinery techniques, bringing out the particular character of each material. A two-tiered box is revealed when the lid is opened. The lid is finished in black fuki-urushi (wiped lacquer) enhancing the grain of the Japanese ash, while allowing the wood’s natural white hue to subtly emerge through the dark lacquer.
 

指物の仕口見本

Shikuchi sashimono joinery techniques

In this sashimono model, the four corners of the inner box feature hidden mitred dovetail joints (tomegata-kakushi-arigata tsugi). The junction between the lid and side-board employs a ‘secret groove’ (tsutsumi-koana), while along the upper lip of the inner box, a tongue-and-groove edge joint (hon-zane-hagi) is implemented. The base plinth is constructed with hidden mitred mortise and tenon joints (tomegata-kakushi-sanmai tsugi) at the corners. This meticulous craftsmanship is entirely concealed, leaving no visible trace on the exterior.