On my second trip to Japan in 1993, I met a boatbuilder in Kochi City. At that point, I had met about half a dozen boatbuilders. Mr Hiromitsu was nearing retirement age and, despite having apprenticed with his father, like most traditional craftsmen, he had never taught an apprentice. As he showed me his drawings, all done on planks of wood, he began by sorting them, saying, “These are my grandfather’s drawings, and these are my father’s, and these are mine.” A Japanese maritime historian, who had brought me to Kochi to meet Mr Hiromitsu, was whistling in amazement.
I too was initially stunned by the wealth of documentation that was being spread out before us, but looking more closely I saw a problem: the drawings were incomplete. In fact,…
