Douglas Brooks
84 South Maple Street
Vergennes, Vermont 05491
United States(802) 877-3289
douglasbrooksboatbuilding@gmail.com
www.douglasbrooksboatbuilding.com

EDUCATION
2002 Middlebury College Language Schools; Middlebury, Vermont.
Intensive Japanese
1982 B.A., Philosophy, Trinity College; Hartford, Connecticut.
1981 University of Oregon; Eugene, Oregon.
1980 Williams College Mystic Seaport Program in American Maritime Studies,
Mystic Seaport Museum; Mystic, Connecticut.

RESEARCH AND BOATBUILDING
2019 Bates College, Lewiston, Maine.
Visiting instructor for a five-week Short Term course entitled “Apprentice Learning: Building theJapanese Boat,” a practitioner-taught class sponsored by the Center for Purposeful Work. Researched
designs, procured materials, organized readings and lectures, and led fourteen students in the study ofapprentice learning while building traditional Japanese boats. Class ended with a Shinto launching
ceremony.
2018 Asian Cultural Council Japan and China Fellow, Asian Cultural Council, New York City.
Research fellowship studying traditional river boats of Japan and China, with a focus on boats used in
the ancient art of cormorant fishing. Interviewed fishermen and boatbuilders and measured over half adozen distinct types of boats.
2017 Lowell’s Boat Shop, Amesbury, Massachusetts.
Built a traditional Japanese tub boat as part of a two-week demonstration. Procured materials andspoke to visitors and school groups. The finished boat was presented to one of the institutions’s
donors.
2017 The Freeman Foundation, Gifu Academy of Forest Science and Culture, Tokyo
National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Mino, Japan.
Working with a research grant from the Freeman Foundation, and in partnership with Gifu Academyof Forest Science and Culture and the Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, I
worked under the direction of Mr. Seichi Nasu, the last builder of cormorant fishing boats,
constructing a forty-two foot boat using traditional tools and techniques. My manuscript documenting
the process will be published in 2019.
2017 Meijer Japanese Garden, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Built a traditional Japanese boat for the Garden’s pond based on a design from the Hozu River in
Kyoto, Japan. The boat was constructed of cypress using traditional tools and techniques.
2017 Ritsurin Koen Garden, Takamatsu, Japan.
Hired to build a new tour boat for the garden, using traditional tools and techniques. I developed alumber list and coordinated the procurement of materials and built the boat over a five-weekperiod.
2016 Asian Cultural Council Taiwan Fellow, New York City and Lanyu Island, Taiwan.
I visited Lanyu Island to study the boats of the indigenous Tao people, working with a grant from the
Asian Cultural Council of New York. I interviewed boatbuilders and fishermen and photo documented
the traditional tatala a type of semi-dugout fishing boat.
2016 Takenaka Carpentry Tools Museum, Kobe, Japan.
Utilizing my 2015 research in Tohoku, over a six-week period I built a traditional fishing boat in theMuseum’s exhibition gallery. I contributed text, photos, and drawings to the exhibition and led aseries of workshops for the public on traditional Japanese boatbuilding.
2016 Himming NPO, Himi, Toyama, Japan.
With funding from the Nippon Foundation I researched a traditional small boat design called a tabune,
or rice field boat, and built a replica at the Totoza Center in Himi, Toyama. The project was a onemonth public exhibition of traditional boatbuilding.
2015 - Present, Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont.
Visiting instructor for Winter Term courses entitled “Building the Japanese Boat.” Researched
designs, procured materials, organized readings and lectures, and led fifteen students in the study ofapprentice learning while building traditional Japanese boats. Each class ended with a Shinto
launching ceremony.
2015 Tohoku Project, Iwate, Japan.
With funding from the Asian Cultural Council and the United States-Japan Foundation, I documented
the work of the last active boatbuilder in the tsunami zone of northern Japan, recording the design
secrets and construction techniques used in building a traditional isobune, or inshore fishing boat, themost common wooden boat type in this region before the 2011 earthquake and tsunami destroyed
much of this material culture.
2015 Japanese Wooden Boatbuilding, published by Floating World Editions, Monroe, Connecticut,
USA.
With support from the United States-Japan Foundation, published a book on my first fiveapprenticeships in Japan from 1996-2010. The book is the first comprehensive survey of the craft
published in any language.
2014 Anderson Japanese Garden, Rockford, Illinois.
Designed and built a traditional Japanese boat for Garden’s main pond, based on boat type used in thecanals of Tokyo. Constructed the boat using traditional tools and techniques.
2014 - present, Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History and the Hannaford Career Center,
Middlebury, Vermont.
Annually lead high school students researching the traditions of boats and boatbuilding of the Lake
Champlain Basin. Developed the program and curricula which included oral interviews with,measurement of historic boats and the construction of replica boats during the fall term. Collaborate
with the school’s engineering class producing CAD drawings of three boats. In 2017 I collaborated
with the school’s Design and Illustration class which publishing a monograph of the students’research.
2014 Mizunoki Museum of Art, Kameoka, Japan.
Built an eighteen-foot boat in an exhibition of traditional boatbuilding. The boat was an ayubune, atype of local river fishing boat. Researched the history and design, delivered an exhibition lecture andhelped write and edit an exhibition publication.
2013 Setouchi Festival, Takamatsu, Japan.
Juried craftsperson for a major international arts festival. Built a twenty-foot traditional Japanese boat
as a public demonstration. Researched traditional designs, procured materials, and trained an
apprentice in the course of the project.
2012-2013 Darling’s Boatworks, Charlotte, Vermont.
Worked on two historic vessel restorations: a thirty-six foot, 1932 picnic boat and a forty-two footwooden sloop, both built in Maine. Both projects involved significant structural work as well as the
fabrication of new trim, deck replacement, and refastening. My article on the history and restoration of
the picnic boat was published by WoodenBoat magazine.
2011 Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont.
Co-taught a Winter Term class with an associate professor of the English Department “Vermont
Waters” an undergraduate course exploring literary and folklore traditions of Lake Champlain.
Lectured, facilitated students folklore research, arranged interviews and field trips, and led the students
in the construction of two replica boats.
2009-2010 Museum of Maritime Science, Tokyo, Japan.
Conducted field research in Okinawa, Japan working alongside one of the last remaining boat buildersof the region assisting in the construction of an eight meter sabani, a traditional fishing boat. Produced
comprehensive construction and lines drawings and wrote a book manuscript published in Japan in
2011. Funding provided by three foundations from the United States and Japan.
2009 - present, Vermont Humanities Council Speakers Bureau, Montpelier, Vermont.
Chosen by juried audition to be one of a select group of lecturers supported by the Council to givepresentations state-wide. Currently speaking on two topics: “From Skiffs to Sail Ferries: The Story ofVermont’s Small Boat Traditions” and “Ways of Learning: An Apprentice Boatbuilder in Japan.”2006 NGO Riverpal Gokasegawa, Nobeoka, Japan.
Invited by a Japanese NGO to interview the last remaining boat builder in the Gokase River Valley.
Documented his methods and recorded an oral history of his life and work, and surveyed the remaining
river boat types of this region.
2005 Schooner Virginia, Tri-Coastal Marine, Norfolk, Virginia.
Designed and fabricated interior joinery for a new, 125-foot sailing schooner. Participated in sea trials
as project photographer and published announcements about construction and launch in publications in
the United States and abroad.
2005 Michinoku Traditional Wooden Boat Museum, Aomori, Japan.

Conducted research and documentation on regional fishing craft, interviewed boat builders andcompleted a lines-taking project measuring several boats. Wrote book manuscript detailing theconstruction of a shimaihagi, a type of local fishing boat.
2002-2003 The Wasen Project - The Freeman Foundation, Tokyo and Aomori, Japan.
Awarded a $175,000 grant from the Freeman Foundation to research traditional Japanese boatbuilding
techniques. Built three different types of traditional Japanese boats working with two master boat
builders. The project resulted in a detailed documentation of the techniques of this craft. Also
conducted field research in other parts of Japan.
2002 Niigata Prefectural Museum of History and the Kodo Cultural Foundation,
Nagaoka and Kodo Village, Japan.
The taraibune, or tub boat, is an indigenous boat whose last builder - my teacher - died in 1999. I
trained a Japanese craftsman, building two boats, completed ongoing research and prepared amanuscript for publication. The Tub Boats of Sado Island; A Japanese Craftman’s Methods, waspublished in 2003 by the Kodo Cultural Foundation with funding from the Nippon Foundation.
2001-2002 Tri-Coastal Marine, Inc., Crown Point, New York.
Served as shipwright and project manager building a 50-foot replica of a Nineteenth-Century Lake
Champlain sailing ferryboat for the Lake Placid/Essex Country (New York) Visitors Bureau.
Researched the history and helped develop the design, and built the sail ferry using traditional
shipbuilding techniques and materials in accordance with Coast Guard licensing standards.
2001 Urayasu History Museum, Urayasu, Chiba, Japan.
Worked with master boatbuilder Nobuji Udagawa building a traditional wooden boat as a public
exhibition. I recorded the construction techniques and the design secrets. The work took place in a
public exhibition space in the museum. Developed a complete set of lines and construction drawings.

2000 Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts.
Built a traditional Japanese tub boat in Suggestive Curves, an exhibit of boats from around the world.
Responsibilities included research and procurement of traditional materials, provided photographs andvideo for the museum’s exhibits department and interpreted the project for visitors. Built the boat in
the gallery using traditional Japanese tools and techniques.
1997 The Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, Vermont.
Restoration carpenter on the rebuilding of the 225-foot side-wheel steamer Ticonderoga, a National
Historic Landmark. Primary duties consisted of duplicating original joinery details in thereconstruction of decks, cabins, siding and railings. All work was done to museum restoration
standards. Supervised volunteers and staff as needed.
1996 Field Research, Hamochi, Sado Island, Japan.
Served as an apprentice at the invitation of Mr. Koichi Fujii, who was the last man still building an
indigenous Japanese boat called the taraibune (tub boat). Worked with him building one boat,
documenting the design, materials and construction techniques.
1995 Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, Ferrisburgh, Vermont.

Boat builder and project manager building an accurate replica of an 1886 sharpie yacht as a publicdemonstration at ECHO, the Leahy Center for Lake Champlain. Developed an education program andsupervised education staff in an outreach program to local high schools.
1993 Grant House Folk Art Center and Heritage Trust of Clark County, Vancouver, Washington.
Timber framer and project manager for the construction of an authentic fur trade-era carpenters shop.
Procured materials, wrote interpretive signage, researched period joinery techniques and cutting all theparts for an 800 square foot building frame. Supervised public interpretation in which volunteers
assisted in a one-day barn raising. Served as consultant for Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.
1992 Grant House Folk Art Center, Vancouver, Washington.
Supervised the construction of a 25-foot cutter, a replica of the first European vessel to explore theColumbia River, part of a bicentennial celebration for the City of Vancouver. Organized and led anhistoric reenactment of the exploration of 1792, part of a ten-day, 120 mile upriver journey in the
cutter. Initiated and helped edit a one-hour award-winning documentary film tracing the constructionof the cutter and the reenactment.
1991 Point Reyes National Seashore, Point Reyes, California.
Rebuilt a 36' wooden motor lifeboat for the National Park Service. Restored the boat, a National
Historic Landmark, using traditional materials and techniques and in accordance with National Park
Service guidelines for historic restoration.
1985-1990 San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, San Francisco, California.
Responsible for the construction of replica boats in the Museum's demonstration boat shop.
Researched and built replica boats, using traditional tools and techniques. Developed the Museum's
boat building class program and supervised a sail training program aboard the museum's scow
schooner ALMA.

GRANTS, AWARDS AND EXHIBITIONS
2017 Asian Cultural Council Japan/China Fellow, New York City.
Awarded a $24,000 research and travel grant to study traditions of cormorant fishing andboatbuilding in Japan and China.
2016 The United States –Japan Foundation, New York City.
Awarded a $10,000 grant to apprentice with one of the last working boatbuilders on the Japan
Sea, building a particular variant of boat found in the Echigo region of that coast.
2016 The Freeman Foundation, Honolulu, Hawaii.
Awarded a $27,000 research grant to study with and document the work of the last builder ofcormorant fishing boats in Gifu, Japan.
2016 Asian Cultural Council Ambassador Program, New York City.
Awarded a $6,000 grant to travel to Taiwan and research the boatbuilding traditions of the Taopeople, and lecture on cultural preservation and boatbuilding.
2016 Lake Champlain Basin Program, Grand Isle, Vermont.
Awarded a $5,000 grant to support design and illustration work by secondary school students
developing interpretive materials and a monograph based on student-led research on Lake
Champlain boats.
2014 Asian Cultural Council Arts in Action-Japan Fellow, New York City.

Awarded a $6,000 fellowship supporting cultural exchange and global dialogue focused on thetsunami-stricken region of northern Japan.
2014 United States-Japan Foundation, New York City.
Awarded research grant of $19,000 to apprentice with the last surviving boatbuilder of thetsunami zone in Tohoku, Japan and document his techniques.
2014 Lake Champlain Basin Program, Grand Isle, Vermont.
Awarded a $4,900 grant to work with secondary school students researching the cultural historyof the Lake Champlain Basin, focusing on traditions of trapping and boatbuilding.
2014 American Craft Council, in association with Balvenie Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Winner of the 2014 Rare Craft Fellowship Award, honoring people “who demonstrate acontribution to the maintenance or revival of rare craft techniques.” Chosen from among
hundreds of anonymously nominated candidates nationwide.
2013 Setouchi Triennale, Takamatsu, Japan.
One of over two hundred artists chosen from forty-two countries to participate in an arts festival
for the Summer of 2013, building a traditional Japanese boat - a type from the Seto Inland Sea
region - in a public venue.
2012 Kyoto Gakuen University, Kyoto, Japan.
Awarded a travel grant to address the symposium “The Importance of Rural Life; Development
Through History, Culture and Nature.” (Chiiki No Taisetsuna Monotte Nandoro; Rekishi, Bunka,
Shizen De Machiokoshi).
2010 The State of Craft, Vermont Crafts Council and the Bennington Museum, Bennington,
Vermont. One of eighty-six artists chosen to display works in celebration of fifty years of theStudio Craft Movement in Vermont.
2008 Nippon Foundation, Tokyo, Japan, Center For Wooden Boats, Seattle, Washington, and
the Asian Cultural Council, New York City.
Awarded research grants totaling $40,000 to study with a boat builder in Okinawa, Japan,
documenting indigenous boat building techniques and publish my book based on myresearch.
2008 United States-Japan Foundation, New York City.
Awarded a $65,000 publishing grant for a book on my research on traditional Japanese boat
building techniques.
2007-2008 Shelburne Museum and the Bard Graduate Center, Shelburne, Vermont and New
York City.
Commissioned to build a Japanese tea cabinet, or chadansu, for the exhibit Shaker Design: OutofThis World, which was on display at the Shelburne Museum in 2007 and at the Bard Graduate
Center through the Spring of 2008.
2007 Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs (Bunkacho), Tokyo, Japan.
My book, The Tub Boats of Sado Island; A Japanese Craftsman's Methods, was honored as asignificant contribution to the preservation of Japan's maritime culture. The book wasrecognized
as the most significant factor in the designation of this craft as an Important Intangible
Folk
Cultural Asset by the Agency for Cultural Affairs.
2005 Michinoku Traditional Wooden Boat Museum, Aomori, Japan.
Received a $10,000 research and publishing grant to write a book manuscript about theconstruction of a local fishing boat type. Publication pending.
2002 The Freeman Foundation, Stowe, Vermont and New York City.
Received a $175,000 research grant which allowed me to live in Japan for one year andapprentice with two boat builders. A follow-up grant of $10,000 allowed me to produce
measured drawings of several types of Japanese boats.

2001 Kodo Cultural Foundation, Sado Island, Japan. Received funding to research an
indigenous boat type and write a book detailing its construction. My book, The Tub
Boats of
Sado Island; A Japanese Craftsman’s Methods, was published in Japan in 2003.
PUBLICATIONS“Sustaining the Tradition; Building the Nagaragawa Ukaibune,” SEA DREAM, Yokohama,Japan, 2018 (in Japanese).
The Two Pointers of Dead Creek: History, Design, and Construction, the Henry Sheldon
Museum and the Patricia A. Hannaford Career Center, 2017.
“The Two-Pointers of Dead Creek,” WoodenBoat, No. 250, May/June, 2016.
“An Apprentice Boatbuilder in Japan,” Kyoto Journal, No. 84, December, 2015.
Japanese Wooden Boatbuilding, Floating World Editions, Monroe, Connecticut, USA, 2015.
Author and co-editor of ayubune, an exhibition monograph published by the Mizunoki Museumof Art, Kameoka, Japan, 2014 (English and Japanese).
“Rushton’s Sailing Canoes; A Short but Lively History,” SEA DREAM, Yokohama, Japan, No.
20 (in Japanese).
“Japanese High Schoolers Visit a United States Wooden Boat Building Class” (Nihon no
Koukousei-tachi Ga Beikoku no Mokuzou Bouto Seisaku Kyoushitsu Wo
Houmon), KAZI,
Yokohama, Japan, January, 2015 (in Japanese).
Building Sabani An Okinawan Fishing Boat, Village Press, Kyoto, Japan, 2014 (in Japanese).
“Maddy Sue, Restoration of an Iconic Maine Picnic Boat,” WoodenBoat, No. 238, May/June,
2014.
“Restoration of the Picnic Boat Maddy Sue,” Sea Dreams, KAZI publications, Yokohama, Japan
Volume 17, 2013 (in Japanese).
“Japanese Handsaws,” WoodenBoat, No. 234, September/October, 2013.
Edited Marukobune, the Traditional Sailing Boats of the Lake Biwa Region by Dr. Kumi
Makino, originally published by Yuzankaku, Tokyo, 2008.
“The Stradivarius of Small Boats, the World of the Adirondack Guide Boat,” Sea Dreams, KAZI
publications, Yokohama, Japan, Volume 13, 2011 (in Japanese).
Sabani; Building The Traditional Okinawan Fishing Boat (Okinawa no Dentouteki
Gyosen; Sabani Kenzou Kiroku), published by the Museum of Maritime Science,
Tokyo,
Japan, 2011 (in English and Japanese).
“Ships of the Japanese Coastal Trade,” a book chapter in Shipwrights Annual, published by
Anova Books, United Kingdom, 2010.
Series of articles on boat building published online at amateurboatbuilding.com, 2009-present.
"Bezaisen: Japan's Coastal Sailing Traders," a book chapter in Sailing Into The Past ,published by Seaforth Publishing, United Kingdom, 2009.
"A Different Way to Ro," WoodenBoat, No. 192, September/October, 2006
“Centennial of Ticonderoga and the Steamboats of Lake Champlain,” Maritime Life andTraditions, No. 32, Fall 2006.
"The Cormorant Fishing Boat," Maritime Life and Traditions, No. 31, Summer 2006.
“A New Replica For Japan,” Maritime Life and Traditions, No. 30, Spring, 2006.
“From Master To Apprentice,” The Gam, No. 47, Spring, 2005.
“To Build a Bekabune,” Maritime Life and Traditions, No. 26, Spring, 2005.
The Tub Boats of Sado Island; A Japanese Craftsman’s Methods (Shokunin no Gihou; Sado no
Taraibune), Kodo Cultural Foundation, Sado Island, Japan, September 2003 (in English andJapanese).
“Building the Beka Bune”, KAZI, Yokohama, Japan, January, 2000 (in Japanese).
“Tarai Bune” JIAM, the Japan Intercultural Academy of Municipalities (Kokusai Bunka
Kenshu), Otsu, Japan, Volume 30, 2001 (in Japanese).

“The Toba Sea-Folk Museum,” WoodenBoat, July 2000.
Edited Ticonderoga, Lake Champlain Steamboat, by Richard Strum, Shelburne Museum,
Shelburne, Vermont, 1998.
"Cultural Icons," Hemispheres, the United Airlines in-flight magazine, July 1997.
“Richard Earle Brockway,” WoodenBoat, May 1997.
"The Tub Boats of Sado Island," WoodenBoat, January 1997.
"Up the Columbia" Classic Boat, London, March 1995.
"Reenacting Lt. William Broughton's Survey of the Columbia River" the Quarterdeck, Vol. 19
No.1, autumn 1992.
"The Stone Boatyard" WoodenBoat, December 1992.
"The Restoration of Motor Lifeboat 36542" Courier, August, 1992.
"Ultralight Boatbuilding," WoodenBoat, July/August 1991.