日本の美が、あなたの技になる。
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A grand master carpenter from Japan leads a very small group. Watch the demonstration up close, ask your questions, and help shape the new façade of “Misuzu Paris”.
In recent years, record heatwaves have struck Europe again and again. On 26 June 2026, Norfolk recorded 37.7°C, breaking a June record that had stood for 69 years, and on 24–25 June a red alert — the highest level of warning, declared for only the second time in history — was issued for six regions including London. Cities built of stone hold the heat of the day long into the night, and the heat of the home has become a pressing everyday concern.
Under RE2020, France has written “summer comfort — confort d’été” into the requirements for new buildings. As air conditioning spreads rapidly, renewed attention is turning to a sustainable Japanese approach that draws coolness from the architecture itself, without emitting CO2.
Last year, Notre-Dame de Paris rose again, together with the oak roof frame long known as “the forest — la forêt”.
Some 2,400 oaks chosen one by one, wooden pegs in place of metal bolts, the medieval side axe used to hew each beam: because the reconstruction employed exactly the techniques of 800 years ago, it led architects and craftspeople across Europe to look once more at timber and the work of the hand.
The climate challenges Europe now faces, and the rediscovery of traditional conservation techniques: it is where these two currents meet that one Japanese craft has come into focus — that of the miyadaiku, the carpenter of shrines and temples.
Timber joined to timber, a building raised without a single nail. The craft has crossed 1400 years and lives on today. That the oldest wooden structure in the world stands in Japan, and that so many of its shrines and temples have stood for centuries, is thanks to this craft — passed from master to apprentice, from hand to hand.
Since the Japonisme of the nineteenth century, the “beauty of Japan” has continued to captivate architects and designers the world over: the tea room, the stillness of Zen, the empty space of sukiya. Those spaces are born of the same art of timber. In 2020 the craft was inscribed on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list.
Timber, moreover, does not change temperature, whether touched at the height of summer or the depth of winter. A sheet of steel burns in August and freezes in January; wood stays constant all year round. In a space of timber the perceived temperature falls by more than five degrees — cool in summer, warm in winter, without depending entirely on air conditioning. Here lies the whole of Japanese wisdom.
Answering both the challenge of the climate and the longing for Japanese beauty, the craft of the miyadaiku
is needed in Europe now.
That is why we have resolved to carry this transmission to Europe.
Shrines and temples — the artisan who builds the places the Japanese heart returns to
The miyadaiku is the artisan who builds Japan’s traditional timber architecture — shrines and temples, and also tea rooms and sukiya houses — within a lineage of craftsmen 1400 years old. They create timber structures able to withstand a thousand years of wind and snow, restore those raised centuries ago, and carry their form into the next era. Building and restoring: indispensable to Japanese culture on both counts, it is one of the most honoured of callings.
Always speak with the wood.
Timber carries the “character” given to it by the slope and the sunlight of the mountain where it grew. This is why the miyadaiku faces the wood, reads its character and builds with sure technique while accepting the order of nature. The miyadaiku is a judge of timber — a professional of wood. Beyond the technique lives a single-minded, unclouded heart. Never proud, never overbearing — it is this clear heart that gives rise to beauty of form.
A hybrid format, created for this academy
Traditionally, the craft of the miyadaiku demanded “ten years living in the master’s house”. This curriculum instead combines hands-on training in Japan with online study — a hybrid format of our own. Based in Europe, you acquire the essence of miyadaiku technique in about seven months, designed to be put to work on site immediately.
From thinning in the watershed forest to hand-cutting in the workshop, and on to a working shrine or temple site. The master carpenter guides each participant closely, and you learn with your own hands.
On siteMaterials that set down a body of knowledge once kept secret allow you to study tool maintenance, marking out, carpenter’s geometry and joinery from your own country. During the e-learning period, a live online practical class led by a miyadaiku is held every two weeks, and every question you raise is answered with care.
E-learningFor the duration of the training in Japan, we arrange accommodation in the town where the workshop stands. Learning while sharing a roof and a table with the master and your fellow students — beyond technique, it is from this shared life that an artisan’s bearing and state of mind are handed down. You experience, in concentrated form, what living in the master’s house once meant.
After graduation — many ways to practise
This curriculum does not end with the certificate. On completion you receive the international qualification “Miyadaiku Timber Technician”, and with the backing of the Miyadaiku Timber Craft Heritage Association, which runs the curriculum, you receive support that leads directly to work.
On completing the curriculum you receive the international qualification “Miyadaiku Timber Technician”, certified by the association. Once earned, it is valid for life.
Once the curriculum is complete and the qualification earned, you may register as an official “certified workshop” of the association in your own country. As one of a small number of certified workshops in Europe, you are able to take on and carry out your own commissions: tea rooms, sukiya architecture, shrines and temples, furniture, joinery and heritage restoration. It is, in effect, joining the miyadaiku “franchise”.
The Miyadaiku Timber Craft Heritage Association, which runs the curriculum, already has extensive construction experience in France, the United States and China, and receives numerous architectural commissions — beginning with the “mobile tea room”, which allows a genuine tea room to be raised anywhere. Work won by the association will from now on be entrusted first to graduates of this curriculum, as official certified workshops.
The workshop of the Japan Miyadaiku Academy receives visitors from overseas almost every day, and it is not possible to meet every request. Graduates of this curriculum, as “members of the association”, take part in projects as a priority.
Graduates who have gained experience move to the teaching side as certified instructors. They open a course in their own country and pass the craft to those who follow. The more places there are to learn in Europe, the more surely this craft will reach the next generation.
The craft of the miyadaiku, and our work, are recognised by Japanese public institutions and internationally alike.
An educational institution devoted to training miyadaiku and handing down their craft.
A house of shrine and temple carpentry founded in 1640 — more than 380 years of history.
Admissions open
The Japanese Academy of Wood · Europe is recruiting students.
This curriculum is by selection. After your application, we will get in touch with you about your entry.
If the form does not work, please write to us directly with any question or to request documentation.
contact@miyadaiku.or.jpThe first step towards that bridge.
