The Tub Boats of Sado Island: A Japanese Craftsman's Methods

Koichi Fujii the last of the tub boat master builders died in 1999. During the 15 years before his death he made about one hundred taraibune, as they are called in Japanese. With his departure also would have vanished the craft itself had not a single student, Douglas Brooks, a writer, researcher, and a boat-builder himself, decided to attempt to do something about it. His plan was to teach a new apprentice how to build these boats, something he himself had learned from Fujii, and to document the process. That was the origin in this book. From an article in the Japanese times, "Tradition stays afloat with the tub boats of Sado Island".