This is a completely new technique to myself and it is wonderful and applies to cedar in Japan and also to Hazel and cypress in europe, but not to this extent.
These are literally ideal for urban settings in particular.
The actual output is also excellent on a twenty year cycle. Better yet, you harvest when a stem is mature at say ten or so inches across and you leave those that need to thicken while encouraging new stems. again this can become an urban practice because the canopy is prevented from ever becoming top heavy.
Uniform stems is of a pretty standard size and allows their craft to become hugely standardized. Better yet, they can all be easily spun down the way we do logs for log homes and made uniform. housing could easily shift over to natural post and beam while walls can be redesigned to a stiff thin polyurthethane panels using much thinner strips of wood. We do not need the present format if quality goes up.
A Japanese Forestry Technique Prunes Upper Branches to Create a Tree Platform for More Sustainable Harvests
OCTOBER 27, 2020
GRACE EBERT
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2020/10/daisugi-trees-japan/
Literally translating to platform cedar, daisugi is a 14th- or 15th-century technique that offers an efficient, sustainable, and visually stunning approach to forestry. The method originated in Kyoto and involves pruning the branches of Kitayama cedar so that the remaining shoots grow straight upward from a platform. Rather than harvesting the entire tree for lumber, loggers can fell just the upper portions, leaving the base and root structure intact.
Although daisugi mostly is used in gardens or bonsai today, it originally was developed to combat a seedling shortage when the demand for taruki, a type of impeccably straight and knot-free lumber, was high. Because the upper shoots of Kitayama cedar can be felled every 20 years, which is far sooner than with other methods, the technique grew in popularity.
To see daisugi up close, watch this video chronicling pruning, felling, and transplanting processes. (via Kottke)
Courtesy of H.Tanaka/Shutterstock
Image via Komori Zouen
A scroll depicting daisugi by Housen Higashihara, courtesy of the auction house
<iframe width="1350" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Wcl4I5EF-do" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
No comments:
Post a Comment