[masraum]

Wow. video starts at 5:26. The guy is performing "kikubari" which is where you look at the characteristics of a bunch of wood and use those characteristics to determine where to use a particular piece of wood and in what orientation to build the strongest, most aesthetically pleasing home. Curvature of the wood is taken into account as it impacts strength. It's cedar, so they use the redder wood for the foundation or where there will be more water. If the wood will be exposed (visible to the owners/occupants) then they try to use wood with no knots.

This video (actually several in a series) is a 'final exam' for a carpentry school. They are using traditional methods to build 2 homes that will be connected. The wood was obtained, milled, dried in the same prefecture.



most of you probably won't be as fascinated as I am, but in case you are

they range between 6 and 11 mins long each.
part 1 https://youtu.be/29ejilBbxyA
pt 2 https://youtu.be/so9LhkmrCkw
pt 3 https://youtu.be/m1qTomSVfX8
pt 4 https://youtu.be/7kN6Qvtgq0o
pt 5 https://youtu.be/dJwBsJQbgKo

They are using ishibadate style for the foundation. Maybe a little similar to pier and beam, they place stones (natural stones) on the ground. Then they have vertical beams sit on end on the stones. They then carve the bottom of the beam to match the shape of the surface of the stone. I saw a video somewhere that said that they'll use a chalk or ink to mark where there are high spots until the beam and stone fit together very, very closely.