Japan's Clay Walls: A Glimpse into their Plaster Craft

I don't know if there are any other books (in English) on this subject. This is a good handbook and I feel like I could use it as a guide to build a wall. My interest is in wall building rather than plaster artistry. On the nuts and bolts side it does a good job. On the arts side it offers a glimpse into an unsuspected world of skill and tradition.

Although you're not going to learn how to apply straw/clay render from a book the knowledge and perspective in this text is excellent. Thank you to the author for sharing your experience!

Emily's immersion in the world of the sakan is nothing short of amazing. Despite years in Japan I had no idea of the mastery that goes into the old earthen walls or of the distinct regional differences. I would love to have had more pictures but that would have made it a more expensive book.

Given as a gift. Recipient loved it

Near me in Corvallis, Oregon, Jay Gray has built a beautiful, traditional Japanese garden (look up garden of gentlebreeze). Last year, he called me about mud plasters, and a few months later called me back and invited me to lunch with the person he'd hired to do the work. Her name is Emily Reynolds, and she gave me a gorgeous little book she's put together called Japan's Clay Walls. Emily grew up partly in Japan, speaks the language, and spent some time as an apprentice to a Japanese master plasterer.The book, brief as it is, opens up a wonderful and immensely useful window into whole worlds of experience that I've been dying to learn more about. The techniques include ways to minimize separation cracks between wood and mud, building bamboo lattice on which to apply the mud (and to make very thin walls), rope reinforcement, mixes, layering, trowel & hawk technique, and decorative details. It's all fully illustrated (in color!). Emily illustrates it all clearly and briefly with useful explanatory diagrams. It seems to me she's achieved - and shared - something very important: a "beginner's mind" which is open, receptive, and humble. I'm past the point where I could go to Japan and apprentice myself to a master, but now I have this book, I can experiment and test my own understandings and adaptations with much greater confidence and tremendous inspiration. -- Kiko Denzer, author of  Build Your Own Earth Oven, 3rd Edition: A Low-Cost Wood-Fired Mud Oven; Simple Sourdough Bread; Perfect Loaves

This book is a must for anyone wanting to comb through the fine-in-betweens of the fine art of plastering. Emily shares a wonderful world that only the book a can reveal! A must for anyone interested in building with natural materials and adorning with earth herself!

Fabulous book, from a real crafts-lady who knows her stuff, very unique and deftly written, I enjoyed this immensely.