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!

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