A Japanese silk thread warehouse arrived in western Massachusetts last month, where it will have a second life as a wood shop. The building’s over 6,000-mile journey to its new home was facilitated by Vineyarder Billy Dillon.
Mr. Dillon, who moved to the Vineyard over 30 years ago to work for South Mountain Company, is a recent cofounder of Kominka North America, an organization dedicated to importing Japanese timber structures that are slated for demolition to the United States.
Mr. Dillon’s involvement began last year when he visited Japan as part of a trip sponsored by the Timber Framers Guild, which showcased timber frame houses in the country and facilitated talks with master carpenters.
Timber framing is a style of construction that is defined by its use of heavy timber pieces joined by wooden pegs. The skeleton of a building is raised and the rest of the structure is built around it. This type of construction has a long history in Asia and Europe — including the Notre Dame cathedral. The style was brought to the United States during the Colonial era, but fell out of favor at the turn of the 20th century as increased demand for housing led to quicker forms of construction.
In the Japanese countryside, many of the timber frame structures had been abandoned as more people moved to city centers. These houses were built mostly before World War II, and although beautiful, they had become liabilities because they were made of paper and wood. If a fire started, it would spread rapidly.
One night, as Mr. Dillon and his friend Adam Miller were sitting in the back of a van being driven around the country, they began discussing the possibility of importing the homes to the United States.
“The houses are built out of incredibly beautiful timber and we can bring them here,” Mr. Dillon recalled. “You can still have the beautiful woodworking and traditional Japanese layout.”
The two men formed Kominka North America, a partner organization of the Kominka Collective, which is located in Japan and seeks out potential buildings to bring to the United States.
“They find these buildings and rescue them because they’re getting chipped and destroyed,” Mr. Dillon said.
For example, the silk thread warehouse was slated for demolition because it was in the path of a railroad. Mr. Dillon said the local prefecture was offering money to help fund the demolition of the building, and his group used the money to take down the structure.
Once a building has been dismantled, the pieces are labeled and sent to the United States. After making it through customs, the material is fumigated before being sent to its final destination. There the structure is brought up to code and adapted for their new climate.
Mr. Miller noted that changes to the structures are inevitable.
“It’s going to be rare that we are ever going to be able to put one up identically to how it was in Japan because building codes are different, heating and cooling is very different,” he said.
For Mr. Dillon, the work has highlighted some unique differences in Japanese and American timber framing.
“They use trees in free form...in Japan,” he said. “A lot of times they use the timber as is, and you can see the curved timber that gets used in these buildings. In most western timber framing, we would spend days shaping that to get it to conform to a lot of our styles.”
He added that the tools Japanese timber framers use reflect their techniques. For example, Japanese framing squares tend to be more flexible because they are used against that natural wood instead of pieces that have been smoothed down.
“It’s some of the nicest timber and lumber in the world,” Mr. Dillon said. “They’re really beautifully built houses. The timber work and joinery is really unsurpassed.”
Mr. Dillon will travel to western Massachusetts in late June to help raise the former Japanese silk thread warehouse, where it will get a second life as a wood and timber framing shop.
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