Also called shōjiki 正直. A plumb line with a plumb bob, furiko 振子, at the lower end. The plumb bob is a…

A rod-like, rectangular piece of wood made of Japanese cedar sugi 杉, or Japanese cypress hinoki 桧, 1.8 to…

A special finishing plane. A plane used in the final stage of smoothing wood after the surface has been flattened with the…

Lit. "bottom-cleaning chisel." A chisel designed to clean out the wooden shavings which have accumulated in the base of the…

A plane used for moulding curved, wooden architectural elements such as gable boards or projecting rafters. The sole of the…

A carpentry gauge used to mark accurate, parallel lines on pillars, door frames and planks, or to accurately redraw the…

Also known as sumi-ito 墨糸. A carpenter's inking line. It is used for drawing a reference line (the procedure is…

Also written 墨芯. A bamboo brush or drawing spatula. The tip of a piece of bamboo is sharpened into a pallet shape and then…

Carpenter's ink pot, or ink pad. The sumitsubo, unlike other carpentry tools, does not have a fixed shape or size.…

A tool called a "punner" in English, used to pound down broken stones laid below the foundation of a building. It consists…

A striking chisel. The primary structural elements in Japanese wooden buildings are pillars and beams, and not supporting…

A ripsaw. A saw used to cut timber in the same direction as the wood grain. There are various types of ripsaw including: the…

A whetstone, grinder, or grindstone. A tool used to sharpen the blade of a plane or chisel. Carpenters used a set of ranging…

Lit. "sword-guard chisel." The chisel used to make the hole needed to drive a Japanese nail wakugi 和釘 into a piece…

A hammer or mallet. Tsuchi are subdivided into various types according to its use. The *…

A paring chisel that shaves a timber entirely by hand pressure. Chisels called *tatakinomi…