Sorry Sean,

I completely neglect to address the..."stock removal"...you referenced.

This to, also seems to be either misunderstood, and/or misinterpreted by many as being for dimensional shaping and or gaining uniformity within the timber...which is the furthest from the truth both in Folk Class and Imperial or Merchant Class Japanese architecture, and I don't know of a single case of it being so in the Korean or Chinese modalities...(not to say it couldn't have take place in some limited or regionally specific aspect?)

Stock Removal is for the soul (and it would seem almost entire goal) of aesthetics and surface treatment against water and dirt absorption. Planned timbers have there grain closed (for lack of a better discription) against water and dirt and seem to present as more durable surface for untreated/finished timbers, than rough unplanned surfaces...especially with the fine edges achieved in Japanese Kana blades and what they leave behind for a finish. Many joints do have housings and these are taken off the Line for reference, not an edge or plain of a timber. To this reference, in the more refined classes of Japanese archtiecture, these housings will follow some common format to a given region and/or Daiku, yet again the timber itself may be out of square or organic in some other context, and it hasn't been until recent times (and the onslaught of modern tools and Western influences there post WWII) that more attention to...Squareness...seems to have become of more focus among some practitioners.

In many ways (some regrettably) the West has influence Japan more than they have us. As a culture of paradoxes in many ways, after their suppression in post WWII culture...all things old where considered worthy of abandonment by many. Old was bad, and new (being mainly Western) was good. It has not been until very recently that we see a resurgence of Cultural pride and desire to save what has almost been lost within many folk arts and crafts. Parts of the countryside have virtually become devoid of growth, until very recently, with most opting for the newness of large cities.

Korea's and China's...stock preparation...also is focused almost entirely on aesthetics and not necessarily the detail refinement of geometry to a set homogeneous shape...per se.