For Paul Tuller, his interest in Japanese culture all started with an anthropology class in college.
It’s hard for him to pinpoint what exactly drew him in, “but it opened my eyes to a very different culture,” he said.
And that one course led him to a path of discovery and creativity that has played a major role in his life. For many years, Tuller was the go to person on the East Coast for those looking to create a traditional Japanese space in their home. He spent many years traveling to the Boston area to bring his clients dreams to life – from bathrooms and tea rooms to furniture and shoji screens and doors – and even went as far as Florida for a job.
“All the details that would go into a traditional Japanese room,” Tuller said.
It was in 1980 when he learned of the fine nuances of the Japanese hand tools at a wood working conference, and was fascinated with both their simplicity and complexity.
“The tools are just superior quality, but they take more understanding in how to use,” Tuller said.
As a kid he grew up on a farm in Connecticut, the same piece of land his family farmed since 1768. It was there where he learned to make and fix things with his hands, a skill that allowed for his deep dive into the art of Japanese woodworking.
After college he was running the family saw mill on the farm, but then he contracted a disease that he suspects was Lyme – although it was never diagnosed – that put his life on hold.
“I was very, very ill and couldn’t work for two years,” Tuller said. “And it all happened in a few months.”
Left with pain, the inability to make a fist and constraints in muscles and joints, Tuller was limited in what he could do. It was then he thought back to that conference where he learned about the traditional Japanese hand tools from a man who used them to make musical instruments.
“I thought maybe I could get into Japanese woodworking, maybe it won’t be as hard on my body,” Tuller said.
And Tuller is one of those people who wants as much information as possible when taking on a new endeavor. Soon he was seeking out any and all books to learn the finer points of how to use the tools. If he was going to truly make this into his life’s work, Tuller knew he needed the background necessary to do it.
“I just learned more and more and got more interested,” he said.
It started with Japanese doors and it morphed into so much more.
“I was always pushing the envelope, furthering my skills,” Tuller said.
Because of that, he began taking on jobs that he didn’t know how to do – like two Japanese bathtubs as part of bigger bathroom projects – because he wanted to learn.
Now retired, Tuller has never fully gotten away from his Japanese woodworking skills. In fact, his last project took 15 years to complete, but he didn’t have to go any further than his backyard to put in a day’s work.
It all started in 1987 outside the Brattleboro Museum, when he was really starting to get serious about his work. He had heard that carpenters were planning to build two timber frames outside the museum, one being in traditional Japanese style, in the course of a month. The idea fascinated him and a year later, he was asked to help reconstruct the Japanese frame in Vermont.
“I was the only one around who knew how it went together,” Tuller said.
He helped fix errors in the roof structure, but it was never actually erected and sat in storage for 16 years before it was to be auctioned off by a school in Athol, Massachusetts in 2004. Tuller offered to buy the pile of timber as is and brought it back to his Dublin home. The following year, after cleaning and sorting the materials, he began putting it together on a piece of land that he and his wife Mary Loftis had purchased across the street from their property where they planned to build a new home.
“I worked on it little by little,” Tuller said. “I had the plans. That way I could figure out where everything went 16 years after it was built.”
But it soon took a back seat to the construction of the new home that spanned two years. He had previously built a large barn on the property that would act as both his workshop and a place for the family horses.
“I always wanted to build a new home,” he said.
With work and life taking priority, Tuller pecked away at putting together the Japanese home. Then about three years ago, after retiring from a seven year stretch with Frost Pond Carpentry, Tuller thought it was time to finish it – before he physically couldn’t.
“It’s a typical Japanese home for a family of four,” Tuller said. It includes the entrance area, where guests remove their shows, a large granite stone meant for cooking he found at Peterborough Marble and Granite, tatami mats for a portion of the floor, a table that sits low to the ground with a well underneath for legs to hang in and what would be considered a family shrine.
First it was one day a week, then the following year it was two days. With the help of Alef de Ghize, who was his apprentice about two decades earlier, the two completed the project last summer, just before Tuller’s daughter Laura’s wedding on the family property.
“I would have never finished without him,” Tuller said. “Well maybe, but I’d be 80.”
The only thing that remains to be done is a Japanese garden, which Tuller expects will take shape over the next couple years.
Tuller grew up in a family that was very community oriented.
“I grew up seeing that as part of normal life,” Tuller said.
And over the years he has been involved with many endeavors. He was the head of the committee that got the Dublin Recycling Center off the ground and served on the board that helped start the Dublin Community Center. He spent six years as a member of the Dublin Historical Society, helping with the project to move the old schoolhouse.
“I’ve always appreciated the power of people working together,” Tuller said. “You can do so much if you organize people into action.”
On a broader level, he was co-founder of the Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers in 1990, an organization that currently has more than 550 members. He saw the benefit of woodworkers from around the state coming together.
“We would always talk about how wouldn’t it be great if we got together and could learn from each other,” Tuller said. “The idea was everybody would get better together and that has carried through for all 30 years.”
He also helped found the Monadnock Art tour, which will celebrate 25 years this fall, and was a juried member of the League of NH Craftsmen.
Currently, Tuller serves on the board for the Cornucopia Project because “I have some background having grown up on a farm.”
Later this month, Tuller will teach an introductory class in the use of Japanese hand tools and joinery techniques at the MAxT Makerspace. He has been involved with MAxT for a number of years, helping to set up the woodworking shop at the Vose Farm Road location and is involved with safety training for those looking to use the area.
He also did some video production work for about five years, taking a break from his Japanese inspired woodworking.
Tuller and Loftis have two children, Laura, who lives in Sacramento, and Andy, who is in Seattle.
He loves antiques and art, and is the vegetable gardener of the family.
What might be a surprise is that Tuller has never been to Japan. He’s always wanted to go, but for one reason or another the trip has never happened. But that will change when he and Loftis go in May – bringing his life’s work full circle.