Endai

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An endai is type of bench, usually used outdoors.

This on is made entirely from cypress wood (yes, cypress 3x3 for the legs). It is 36" long, 18" deep, and 18" tall. Though I planed the lumber mechanically; I made all the cuts (even the tenoning for the legs) drilled all the pilot holes, and drove all the nails (modern wire nails, alas) by hand with Japanese tools.

For the past six months or so, our local Barony has been having Arts and Sciences "Practice" along side martial practices. During the winter, practices are held in a local school, so tables and chairs are easy to lay hands to. With the advent of warm weather, practices are outside in a local park. I decided that some good old fashioned carpentry and traditional garden furniture were in order!

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The verandah-style platform that surrounds many Japanese houses is called an “En”. The “En-dai” serves as either a step between the En and the ground, or a seat on the ground or En. While it is true that, starting in late period, the Japanese traditionally sat on tatami-padded floors while inside the house, they often sat on benches or stools while outside the house. Sometimes, the edge of the En itself served as outdoor seating.

This one is made entirely of cedar. Not expensive aromatic cedar, but inexpensive red cedar (it smells good anyway, if you like the smell of freshly sharpened pencils) from a great lumber place not too far from Pennsic called "Mars Lumber". The legs are 4x4s, the support rails are 2x4s, and the top surface are 1x6s. Well, not quite. Everything took a few passes through the planer, and possibly the saw to get it down to a workable size and smoothness. The 1x6s especially got about an inch taken off them in the saw, then I hand planed the edges to smooth out the saw marks and take them down to exactly the width I wanted.

The whole endai is 36 inches long, 18 inches wide, and almost 19 inches tall. I'm not super happy with the way the mitered corners on the support rails came out, but I was cutting them by hand, so I guess they could have been worse. Except for the nails holding the top boards down, all the fasteners are hidden, which I think makes this one a little nicer than the first one anyway. Even though the wood is thicker than the first one, the overall bench is noticeably lighter.

My eventual goal is to have at least four of these up at Pennsic. This one is the second endai. Once I have four of them, that will be enough to support a full size tatami mat. Until then, these make some good outdoor seating.

Further reading:

Engel, Heino
Measure and Construction of the Japanese House
Tokyo, Japan; Rutland, VT; Singapore
Charles E. Tuttle Conpany
1985

Morse, Edward S.
Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings
New York, NY (Boston, MA)
Dover Publications, Inc. (Ticknor and Company)
1961 (1886)

[Saionji Shonagon]

In the meantime, a red cloth cover would not be out of place. We saw set-ups like this one at various places in Kyoto. While I cannot say how period such an arrangement actually is, it looks attractive.

www.flickr.com/photos/70104978@N00/15667349312/in/album-72157646712711234/

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Jul 7, 2015 17:45:57 GMT -5 Saionji Shonagon said:

In the meantime, a red cloth cover would not be out of place. We saw set-ups like this one at various places in Kyoto. While I cannot say how period such an arrangement actually is, it looks attractive.

I don't have good documentation for hi-mosen, but I'd put them in the "plausibly period" category.

The book I have that mentions them* says they are traditionally made of red felt. This makes me feel that their association with hospitality puts them in the same socio-economic niche as pineapple in colonial North America. See, pineapples were all brought in to colonial North America by merchant ships, so if your inn had pineapples it did a lot of business with naval merchants, so pictures of pineapples became graphical shorthand for hospitality, and if you wanted to attract more naval merchants to your business you hung out a sign with a picture of a pineapple. If red wool felt is all brought in by merchant ships...

Anyway, yes I bought a large piece of red felt to use as a hi-mosen. It works well to hide a layer of foam padding.

* Koizumi, Kazuko; Traditional Japanese Furniture; A Definitive Guide; Tokyo and New York; Kodansha International; 1989 (1986)

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So I never posted about this, but last year I made three more of these endai just before Pennsic. The five endai turned out to be so useful that I was asked to make two more. It so happens that buying enough lumber to make two actually gives you enough lumber to make three. So, a few weeks ago I bought enough lumber to make four, just to be sure we'd have enough endai. I managed to complete one of them just before the Ice Dragon event so that it was available for the vigil tent. Today a friend came over to help out, and we were able to complete assembly on the other three.

These are all made from "Western Red Cedar". 4-by-4 for the legs, 2-by-4 for the rails, and 1-by for the decking. Back when I was only planning to make one of these a year, I made the first two by hand, even going so far as to drill the pilot holes for the nails with a Japanese gimlet. Given the accelerated schedule, power tools for last year's three and this year's four. Quantity over quality, I guess, not that my hand cut joinery was very good on the ones I made two years ago. Anyway, there is a light finish of boiled linseed oil on the wood to protect it from spilled drinks and to make the grain glow like it does in that photo.

[solveig]

A small improvement would be to use Port Orford Cedar which is imported to Japan to substitute for, if I recall correctly, hinoki wood.

[solveig]

Somewhat more typically, the "bench" like structure was an architectural feature of a building. Another interesting piece of architecture with a built in bench is the "machiai" found in tea gardens. However, it is difficult to transport a full size Japanese house or a full size Japanese machiai to Ice Dragon. It is difficult enough to have small houses at Pennsic.

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Apr 13, 2017 1:19:11 GMT -5 solveig said:

A small improvement would be to use Port Orford Cedar which is imported to Japan to substitute for, if I recall correctly, hinoki wood.

I am told by [the blogs of] some serious woodworking people that you are correct. This is true because true hinoki cypress is so expensive that even Port Orford Cedar is cheaper. I used North American cypress for my first endai (and for the camp gate), but the lumber yard I like no longer carries it.
Speaking of cost, the cedar I bought this year was roughly twice as expensive as the pine I bought last year. Shopping around online I can find the dimensions I need in P. O. Cedar for roughly three times the cost of pine. There would probably be shipping costs on top of that because I don't know if any lumber yards around here carry it.

Apr 13, 2017 1:23:48 GMT -5 solveig said:

Somewhat more typically, the "bench" like structure was an architectural feature of a building.

That usage is clear in the name itself. An endai is often used as an intermediate platform (dai) between the ground and the veranda (en) of a building. I have seen pictures in scrolls of people sitting on the edge of an en, or a bench type platform attached to the edge of a building at least, especially if the building is an inn or roadhouse of some kind. Presumably the endai evolved from there into a more portable bench. In old movies, you see them a lot outside roadside food and drink establishments, where the same object is often used as a bench to sit on and a table to serve/eat from, like it is a portable piece of floor.

[Deleted]

I recently completed a different kind of bench, with different joinery and no metal hardware.

It's based on a model that I saw in the Costume Museum in Kyoto,

except I made mine with 2x4 and 2x8 from the hardware store.

So, there's only about $25 worth of materials in it, but about two days of work.

cutting all those huge mortises was a lot of work.