Yamaga Kominka

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xxxxtom
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Re: Yamaga Kominka

Post by xxxxtom »

In the formal garden there are quite a few small plants, upon closer inspection it appears that they are bonsai growing on rocks removed from there pots and maintained. I didn't know it could be done or how often its done.
I have also found about 10 bonsai pots in the garden.
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These I also found in the garden and thanks to Brett I know that they are for making tofu ,
Cheers
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xxxxtom
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Re: Yamaga Kominka

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My wife visited the 97 year old obachan who sold the house to us in a retirement home.
She informed her that the 4 lower rooms of the house were for silk worm raising and the Hori Kotatsu were for heating these rooms and keeping the environment suitable for silk worm raising.
They cooked in the doma area and slept upstairs.
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Zasso Nouka
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Re: Yamaga Kominka

Post by Zasso Nouka »

Fantastic bit of history for the house Tom.

Do you happen to know how the stones were used in tofu making ?

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xxxxtom
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Re: Yamaga Kominka

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ZN not to sure if all 3 wheels fit together but somehow I think that there must be a larger dish on the bottom to catch the soy milk etc. I think the offset hole is for a wooden handle on the larger wheel. If anyone has any info re this it would be appreciated.
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Re: Yamaga Kominka

Post by BrettRas »

Looks to me like you've got halves of three different sets of stones. The offset hole in the larger stone is for feeding the thing you wish to be ground down into the middle of the two stones as the top stone is spun around (the face shown in the photo is the face which touches the matching bottom stone). That makes the large stone definitely a top stone. The other two don't have that hole so they must both be bottom stones. The middle hole is where the wooden core is set to allow the stones to spin around. There is also a cut out space on the side of the top stone, that is the place where the handle is inserted.

Some stone sets have a basin as well, often including the bottom stone in one piece. But often the stones are set on a frame above a bucket to collect whatever was being ground.

These stone sets were used for grinding all sorts of things. Of course soybeans for tofu & soymilk, but also grains, and smaller stone sets are used for grinding tea leaves for matcha.

The Goto Experience grindstone set in action during tofu making:

Hope that helps!

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xxxxtom
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Re: Yamaga Kominka

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Nice work Brett, it makes you appreciate a piece of tofu when you see the work involved.
Thanks for the info.
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xxxxtom
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Re: Yamaga Kominka

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Things seem to be settling down a little her in Kyushu (touch wood) so I thought I'd show pic of the only noticeable earthquake damage. The beam shown is out in the barn side of our house and is about 2.5m up and is part of the roof structure. It is about 200 mm across and unusually it has lifted.I'm not to concerned about it, but luckily we have a carpenter working here next week.
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Re: Yamaga Kominka

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I pulled down the false ceiling as seen in the first picture . It's the "middle room" in our 3 room LDK . I need to do a fair amount of shikkui plastering as all the walls are mud and straw.
I also need to insulate and line the ceiling. There's some nice old wiring with porcelain insulators and brackets that will cleanup nicely.
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Re: Yamaga Kominka

Post by Zasso Nouka »

That looks much better without the false ceiling, what will you use for insulation ?

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xxxxtom
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Re: Yamaga Kominka

Post by xxxxtom »

Polystyrene sheets , it's easy to fix in place, cheap and will help reduce the amount of mud/dirt that falls between the timber slats that the tiles sit on.
We are then going to fit timber slats that overlap to finish it off.
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