Examples of a few (mostly) Japanese joints created in Jay van Arsdale's Japanese Joinery class at Laney College, Oakland, CA and some I tried on my own. Figure out the process on practice joints and scrap wood.
I also urge you to get a copy of this book. It contains a lot of information on joinery and and has measured drawings of many (and it is cheaper than many other books on the topic):
The Complete Japanese Joinery by Hideo Sato, Yasua Nakahara and Koichi Paul Nii (1995)
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| Haunched mortise & tenon on shoji frame. |
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| Bridle joint variation |
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| Bridle joint variant from side. |
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| Kanawa-tsugi joint (6"x6" post) |
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| boxed and mitered mortise and tenon |
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| boxed and mitered M&T assembly |
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| Shitagekama joint (half-dovetail locked with wedge) |
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| Shitagekama disassembled |
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| Shachi-tsugi joins two horizontal beams to a post. |
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Top of beam. Keys not trimmed flush yet.
Tapered keys tighten joint. |
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Beam ends are also partly mortised into post to support load.
Google saoshachitsugi for details at JAANUS site. |
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Mitered (or secret) blind dovetail.
Widely used in Japanese tansu and sashimono. |
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| inside the mitered blind dovetail |
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| Female half of a kama-hozo-kumi (鎌ほぞ組) variant. |
