This oddly captivating Twitter account is bringing back the ancient Japanese art of wood joinery

The ancient Japanese art of wood joinery might be a dying tradition in today’s modern technological landscape, but one man is still trying to thrust this age-old practice into the future – and now he’s bringing it to Twitter.

For those unfamiliar with this culture, Japanese wood joinery is a carpentry technique that involves putting together various pieces of wood without the use of nails, screws or adhesives. The method dates back to the seventh century, but has largely remained under the radar throughout the years.

Not long ago, a young Japanese man came across a book teaching the craft of wood joinery and immediately fell in love with the idea.

To his surprise, most books exploring this ancient art were difficult to understand and the two-dimensional sketches that often accompanied them were simply not instructive enough.

This is when he decided to put his self-taught woodworking skills to use and began creating his own three-dimensional wood joinery models as animated GIFs, using mechanical design software Fusion 360.

三方組仕口 Sampo-gumi-shikuchi pic.twitter.com/OdgpaTBvcs

— The Joinery (@TheJoinery_jp) May 3, 2016

To breath life into this dying practice, the nameless craftsman is collecting all of his creations and storing them on his Twitter account. So far, the anonymous Japanese netizen has designed more than 70 GIFs with wood joinery techniques.

Here’s a few more examples of this oddly captivating craft.

車知栓継ぎ仕口の四方差し Shachisen-tsugi-shikuchi-no-shihousashi pic.twitter.com/WDnoxrtIr0

— The Joinery (@TheJoinery_jp) May 25, 2016

河合継手 Kawai-tsugite pic.twitter.com/WQwxeZ7t4M

— The Joinery (@TheJoinery_jp) May 17, 2016

込み栓継ぎ仕口の三方差し Komisen-tsugi-shikuchi-no-sanpousashi pic.twitter.com/Azcj9jm1lw

— The Joinery (@TheJoinery_jp) April 30, 2016

For more of these wonderfully crafted animations, head to this page.

via Spoon & Tamago