fiddlin' away...

I spent a good part of last weekend working away on one of the most difficult parts for the Karakuri. A device that will stop the doll from shooting across the table at 20 mph!

My current design of the dolls escapement
It's going to no doubt change. 

It's called the escapement, an important timing device that is the core of every early timepiece in history. The early Chahakobi Ningyo were influences by western style clocks imported by the Portuguese into Japan perhaps around the early 1700s. These early clocks used a type of escapement called a verge escapement. You've probably seen these before in one of your grandparent's old see-through mantle clocks. There's a cylider with saw-tooth shaped teeth that is connected to the drive train of the clock. A post with two pallettes/tabs rotates back and forth to catch the teeth one at a time. The pallettes rotate vetically and the speed is controlled by a wieght attached on the top of the post holding the palletes. Usually this post needs as little friction to deal with as possible, so it could be hung with a wire or in the case of my Ningyo, more likely pivoted on a point. As the palettes engage and disengage the teeth, it controls the speed of the doll as it rolls across say the surface of a table, stopping the hot tea from the dolls cup launching into your guests face... That wouldn't bee too civilized, now would it?

I'm using the CAD to help figure out the spacing.
The teeth shape was wrong in this example.

Working from the photos I've made most of the parts I think correctly, though the angle between the palettes might be wrong. Reading some literature from old Muslim clock design, (which all western clocks are descended, not to mention our astronomy), it appears that they should be a little over 90 degrees. Perhaps 120 but that seems a bit much. I think in this case for the Karakuri it should be around 90 to 100 degrees. Until I make a mock-up of this and run it I can't be sure.
This is the most difficult set of parts by far. Time to fiddle some more!

the real thing...

I thought I should post a video of the actual Karakuri I am trying to make a replica of. I have a video of the machine in question that I got up close and personal during my visit to the Karakuri Museum in northern Nagoya last year. 

the Karakuri museum in Inuyama, Nagoya.

The Karakuri Museum is located in the northern part of Nagoya, just in the shadow of Inuyama Castle. You have to take a 20 minute train from downtown Nagoya to get there, but it's well worth it. The neighborhood around the castle is stunning, and very old fashioned.  In the Spring there is an amazing Karakuri float festival that involves various wooden automaton ( http://www.japan-photo.de/e-inuya-fest.htm ) acting out traditional stories on top of two story high floats. I hope to be there one year for this, it would be amazing!

Inuyama Castle

model of a festival float


Anyway, here's a link to the vid :  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kSWI5hKOpMs (Blogspot's video posting doesn't seem to be working today...)

The demonstration was put on by a fellow who came to the museum (from another cultural museum close by) specially for my wife and I. The admission person at the front desk made a phone call after my wife explained 'my husband is crazy about this stuff, any chance for a demonstration?" He was over in five minutes and spent a half hour or so showing various festival dolls in motion. It was a very generous gesture and after it was all said and done, we didn't catch his name. Embarrassing! The giri on that is huge so I better sort that out!

Steady progress in the CAD department

Well things are progressing fairly well with my digital reproduction of the Chahakobi Ningyo that I saw up close and personal in Nagoya last year. While battling a cold I've managed to design and align a few of the gears for the mechanism. I've been using a freeware program called Inkscape to design the gears, and so long as you keep the circular pitch and pressure angle of the teeth the same, they will mesh up. The only issue is the distance between the gears. This is where my CAD software, Alibra, comes in handy. I can set various parts to be transparent and align manually. Here's an example:

 I now know where to align the hole properly. Of course until this is all made out of wood I'll never know if it will work 100%. The current 'hobby' version of this Cad software does not allow me to actually mesh and run these gears. However I have an idea how to do that.

Stay tuned. 

As for progress, here's a nice little artsy shot of my current state of things...

the learning curve, more like...

...having your head explode. You know what you want to do but the software doesn't make it easy to find out how to do what you think is the simplest thing in the world.

I've spent three solid days trying to teach myself Alibra Design. I purchased the inexpensive 'hobby' version that 'should' be useful. Should. 

Well, as you can see here my digital replica is underway.

Actually it's not so bad. Having an animation background (trained in traditional) you would think I would know my 3D by now, but I'm one of those odd birds who learned the animation right when 3D was starting to be introduced, and for some (stupid) reason I stuck with the traditional 2D. I only say 'stupid' because I'm naturally a 3D, sculptural and mechanical kind of guy. 

Any 3D or cad fans out there. DO you see one obvious silly mistake? Well I'll tell ya, I constructed my digital version at some odd 45 degree angle to the regular working planes.

HOW DID I DO THAT?! I have no idea. That's a pure justin phenomena...

How do I fix that? Oh lord...

Anyone know Alibra????

I almost forgot. Congratulations to my cousin Jody and new wife Sarah. They got married today!

he finally gets serious about this...

Hello all,

at Karakuri Nervana

Well this is my first dive into blogging. I decided that it might be fun to see if there's anyone else out there in webland who shares my fascination with Karakuri ningyō, aka Zashiki karakuri. 
What are they? Only one of the earliest and most interesting examples of Japan's fascination with robotics and the mechanical mimicking of life!
Here's a picture of me with the real thing when I was visiting Nagoya, Japan in 2009. 

not a bad attempt!
(head sucks though)

I've been extremely interested for about four years now. I've dabbled in woodworking and automata, so I thought I would give it a go in making a replica of a kaurakuri ningyo, or tea serving doll. I tried once or twice before but with mixed results. 


The first one on the left would wind up and take off down the table at 20 miles an hour. I was working from such poor images I missed an important part! After two attempts I decided I should design my replica as close to the original as possible using cad software, and checking for mechanical errors before 'making dust'. (Cutting any wood.) Hours and hours go into making these by hand, so the next one better work!


So basically, with this blog I intend show my latest attempts to create one of these dolls and all the headaches that goes with making a complicated mechanical device - from wood.


I hope you find this interesting. I'd appreciate any feedback you have, and if you're one of the few karakuri fans out there, please drop me a line!


Before I go on I must mention that I have the utmost respect for the original and current artisans in Japan who maintain this amazing craft. I mean no disrespect in attempting this. It's a closely hidden talent to create these, but from what I understand there's only a few people left in Japan who know how to fix any or the dolls that are lucky enough to survive. I hope my efforts show how much I feel this craft, (well it is a fine ART), deserves attention and reverence in the eyes of artist, craftsmen, engineers and cultural historians around the world.

Whoa that was heavy. 
Time to make some dust, or to be more precise, to start some digital dust...


-justin