Tuesday 6 January 2026, 4.00-6.00pm (GMT)
This is an online event. Register for the Zoom here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Kgm3w5iaSuOrprxuJkz5xw
Living and Created Tradition among Japanese Master Carpenters
Speaker:
Yukiko Oshima, architect and urbanologist, Japan Research Centre, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS)
Invited Discussant:
Edoardo Paolo Ferrari, anthropologist and architect, Hoare, Ridge & Morris Architects
Abstract:
Although most houses in Japan are built today using industrial methods, some clients are interested in having their homes constructed with traditional techniques. This represents a contemporary trend because of its “ecological” appeal. Japanese carpenters have traditionally taken on architectural roles, being responsible for both design and construction. In the current information age, those carpenters capable of using communication technologies to effectively promote their skills and ideas succeed in finding numerous opportunities. These carpenter-architects do not conceive of tradition as something fixed or to be preserved for its own sake. Building on the achievements of their predecessors, they adapt their work to the present. What accumulates through this process is subsequently recognized as “tradition”. Broader social changes pose a threat, however, to the continued existence of traditional carpentry itself. For these traditional carpenters, whose finished work endures beyond their own lifetime, artistry lies not only in their own creations but also in envisioning the future of the craft.
Biographical note:
Yukiko Oshima is an associate researcher at the Japan Research Centre of the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS). After obtaining her bachelor’s degree in forest environment studies from the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tokyo, and her master’s degree from the École Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris, she worked for architecture firms in Tokyo before completing her doctorate at the EHESS. Based on interviews conducted with French and Japanese professionals involved in wood construction, she employed a comparative approach to study the place of wood in architecture – including traditional architecture – as practiced in contemporary society.
Edoardo Paolo Ferrari is a trained architect who has worked for the past ten years between conservation of historic buildings, mainly in the Western Himalayas, and extensive ethnographic research on traditional construction techniques and their transmission. He holds a PhD in architecture and anthropology from Oxford Brookes University, grounded in research focussing on contemporary dry-stone walling practices in Italy. He is a member of ISMEO (International Association for Mediterranean and Oriental Studies, Rome) and director of the Indian-Italian research mission in Ladakh since 2024. His work shifts from the study and analysis of the making processes to the critical and reflexive practice of repair and conservation of historical buildings, adapted to the specific environments in which he works. He is currently part of Hoare, Ridge and Morris Architects in Suffolk, UK.
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Artistry@Work is an online Seminar Series in the Anthropology of Artists & Artisans, running 2024–2026
Maison des Sciences de l’Homme–Université Clermont Auvergne, in collaboration with the Royal Anthropological Institute
Organisers: Dr Raphaël Blanchier & Professor Trevor Marchand
This seminar series in anthropology explores the situated practices of ‘artistry at work’ and, more broadly, the working lives and career trajectories of artists and artisans plying their trades in regions around the globe. The scope of the series also encompasses studies of occupations not conventionally categorised as “artistic” but that nevertheless foster creativity among (some) practitioners and even accommodate the development of “artist” identities.
Find all events in the series here: https://therai.org.uk/series/artistrywork/
