garden design, traditional architecture, garden architect, landscapers, japanese woodwork, japanese stone

Japanese Dojo Torii Gate and Shoji Screens - Woodwork (2022)

Authentic Japanese Torii Gate and Woodwork for a Dojo in Holland
On separate occasions, our woodworkers have traveled to fulfill two projects commissioned by the Kai Sei Budo School in Zoetermeer, South Holland.

The first project comprised of creating 24 Shoji Dojo dividers. The screens were designed to be easily constructible while remaining sturdy and portraying an authentic appearance. Within each wooden frame is a printed sheet featuring slats with a silhouette behind it. These different silhouettes represent various martial arts such as Karate, Judo, and Jiu-jitsu.

The second project consisted of crafting our first-ever Torii-style gate for the martial arts Dojo. Torii gates are an everyday sight in the streets of Japan and are especially prominent at Shinto shrines. Passing underneath a Torii represents a passage between normal day-to-day life and a holy place of peace and reflection, a transition from the ordinary into the sacred. This same concept can work beautifully for a garden and, in this case, a Dojo as well. The Torii is painted in a traditional combination of red and black and carefully placed at the Dojo that our talented woodworkers constructed it for.