Mission Statement of Daiku Dojo

Daiku Dojo is a community organization designed to help provide the education and skills necessary for the use of hand tools in woodworking. The organization also encourages personal involvement with community projects. By joining together we can work on interesting projects that most of us would not have the opportunity or resources to attempt alone, and at the same time, benefit local groups and organizations.

About Us

	Jay van Arsdale: Jay apprenticed early on with his father and grandfather in his family's blacksmith shop in Kentucky. After graduating from Centre College, Danville, Ky., in 1970, he came to the Bay Area where he attended Mills College in Oakland, (MFA in Art, '72). Jay was inspired to become involved with Japanese woodworking in the mid 1970's after seeing a demonstration by Japanese Daiku Makoto Imai, who he learned from for a number of years. Jay has worked and taught in the Bay Area since the early 80's. He has given demos/lectures and other presentations for many organizations, including the Japan Society, San Francisco Asian Art Museum, Exploratorium, Academy of Science, UC Berkeley, School of Architecture, and others. Jay is the author of Shoji, designing, building, and installing Japanese Screens. (Kodansha, '86), Introduction to Japanese woodworking, (video, '87), and contributing editor on The Complete Japanese Joinery, (Hartley & Marks, '90). He also has written numerous magazine articles and appeared on Japanese and U.S. TV. Jay is a licensed building contractor who lives with his wife and daughter in a bamboo grove in Oakland. Jay currently teaches Traditional Japanese Hand Tools and Joinery at Laney College in Oakland and at the Arques Boat School in Sausalito. His favorite websites are www.mingei.org and www.portlandchinesegardens.org
Cassandra Adams: An architect currently specializing in eco-design, Cassandra has worked with Jay van Arsdale for the last five years. As a professor at UC Berkeley, she specialized in documenting Japanese temple design and construction.
	Rene Almon: A graduate of the College of the Redwoods Fine Woodworking Program, Rene has 20 years of experience making cabinets and furniture pieces. Originally a boatbuilder, she now specializes in custom furniture for those currently living and urns and caskets for those eternally resting. Her website is www.renealmonwoodworks.com
Jim Clarke: An amateur woodworker for the last three years, Jim currently specializes in building pieces to complement Liz Maxwell's art.
	Deborah Greene: A physician with a mid-life crisis, Deb is on her way to College of the Redwoods Fine Furniture Program and will be back eventually. Here are some of her favorite websites: www.geocities.com/plybench/bowsaw.html How to make a bowsaw. www.hyperkitten.com/woodworking/frame_saw.php3 How to make a framesaw. www.frontier.iarc.uaf.edu/~cswingle/woodworking/jigs.phtml#framesaw How to make another frame saw. www.ilovewood.com On-line information about different woods. Deb checks out the checks of Alaskan Yellow Cedar with Jay.
Herbert Harris: A softweare engineer by profession, a woodworker by avocation, Herb builds really neat stuff including a recently finished front door of alder for his El Sobrante home.
	Herman Hsu: I didn't expect to get into Japanese woodworking that much till the day I saw Jay cut a half lap joint with a ryoba saw and a chisel. That was in 2003. I thought, hey, you could do that faster than a machine and the result was just as good. Since then I was hooked. You know, buying expensive Japanese hand tools, hanging out with woodworkers, taking classes, and talking shop. From time to time, I feel that it's been an interesting and challenging journey. Wood, hand tools, tradition, skill, masters, folk wisdom, and modern machinery -- it's a rich world.