PROJECT: Japanese Wood Joinery & Kitchen Shelves

Before COVID steamrolled the whole planet, the wife was planning to take a Japanese wood joinery class at a local university. After that plan fell through she found out that the class teacher/sensei offered similar content in an online format, DIY Japanese Joinery Online Video Courses

So we decided to sign up to the class to see if we could incorporate these new techniques to our woodworking projects. I will admit that I was quite hesitant at first as I tend to be quite lazy/efficient with my work; as in, if two pieces of wood can just be fixed together with glue/screws then I don't see the point of using fancy joints. BUT after spending a good month getting familiar with the new tools (as well as the countless weekends slowly sharpening each one) we finally applied what we learned and made a kitchen shelf; and I have to admit that seeing something so modular come together was 100% good vibes for me. So should be fun to figure out other ways we could use these joints ;^)

Anyway, before cutting all the wood I modeled the assembly in SOLIDWORKS, as my monkey brain has trouble with "complex" assemblies. So here is how that looked (ignore the poorly fitted dovetail joints, here I was too lazy to make separate parts):

And here is how the result came out :D