"The author, the first Westerner to be initiated into a traditional carpentry guild, begins by illuminating the significance of the "way" of the art and craft of carpentry in Japan, revealing the religious rituals that surround the carpenter's tools and the building process as well as the secret traditions and the trade's transmission from master to disciple over the centuries. He discusses the organization of the carpenters' guilds, the apprenticeship system, and the divisions of labor and specialization within the profession. He reviews the m,aterials of Japanese carpentry, the woods the masters worked with, and outlines the primary methods of design and construction - for the traditional master carpenter did both. ..."--Book flap.