Demi’s Reviews > The Building of Horyu-ji. The Techniique and Wood that Made it Possible. > Status Update

comparing wood tradition in european/western cultures with japanese culture is a bit broad. consider the difference between broadleaf woods and conifers... like describing working with “meat” instead of thinking of differences between handling beef vs. handling fish meat.

... and a possibly controversial follow-up to that: it may be related to how “people living in southern climes tend to maure earlier, and those in the north tend to live longer lived. people gradually grow taller in height from the warmer to the colder regions.”

after understanding the differences in properties of aged wood vs. new wood, Kohara found a way to age wood by heat treatment. he tested out this technique by giving a violin maker some different pseudo-aged woods and sure enough the violin maker preferred the “oldest” one (selling it to a satisfied american violinist!)

“Some people believe that human beings are the equivalent of a precision machine, and can be replaced by computers. The fact is even a lowly cockroach can’t be replaced by a calculator. Still, we continue to believe that human beings can be emulated by a computer. This is one of the common pitfalls of technological education, resulting from a blind faith in quantitative reasoning.”

2/3 of wood used in japan is imported- may actually be facing a wood shortage. the particulars of using wood as carefully as carpenters throughout history have, by understanding the idiosyncrasies of each tree, cannot be replicated with the use of engineered wood products

conifers growing on a slope exhibit “ate” -conical bent shape. analogous to reinforcing placement in a concrete beam.