American Carpenter Finds Success in Japan

Mr Jon Stollenmeyer, 42, grew up in Ohio and studied architecture at the University of Cincinnati.

- Brian Lam

JAPAN -

In 2005, he visited a classmate in Japan with the idea of seeing the work of modern architects such as Tadao Ando and Kengo Kuma. He soon revised his itinerary when he encountered the country's antique temples and teahouses, and became infatuated with Japanese wood architecture.

In 2009, Mr Stollenmeyer persuaded the distinguished firm Nakamura Sotoji Komuten in Kyoto - known for its work in sukiya-zukuri, or teahouse architecture - to take him on as its first and only American carpentry apprentice.

The company's portfolio includes tearooms or teahouses for Mr Nelson Rockefeller's estate in Pocantico Hills, New York; the Huntington library and gardens in San Marino, California; and the famed Shinto shrine complex in Ise, Japan.

Sukiya carpentry favours materials in their natural states, encouraging a complex interplay between uncut stone, earthen walls, bark-covered logs and paper screens.

Today, Mr Stollenmeyer is a partner at Somakosha, a carpentry workshop in Okayama, Japan, that is opening a school in March to teach Japanese carpentry techniques to visitors from abroad. He lives in Okayama with his six-year-old son in a 110-year-old house he restored.

In an interview, he spoke about the monumental effort required to find and keep a foothold in the insular world of Japanese woodworking.

How does an American become a Japanese-style carpenter?