Collector-Grade Timber

Live Edge Slabs from the Famous Yoshino Region, Nara Prefecture

Five Centuries of Forestry Tradition, Captured in a Single Piece

The Yoshino mountains of Nara Prefecture have been managed as a forestry region for over five hundred years. Generations of forest workers planted trees close together, returning season after season to remove competing growth and trim lateral branches, so the trunks could rise clean, straight, and slow. The result is timber that cannot be rushed, replicated, or approximated.

The pieces available through Mokuzai come from that lineage. Each slab carries verifiable Yoshino-region provenance. They are not 'Japanese-inspired' — they are Japanese, with documentation to prove it: regional origin traceability, species identification, harvest method, and GOHO certification. The grain is calm and refined because the trees earned it over a human lifetime of growth.

Available species include Hinoki, Sugi, Keyaki (Japanese Zelkova), and Sakura (Japanese Cherry), subject to current warehouse inventory. Each piece is photographed and selected individually. This is not a catalogue product, it is a curated acquisition.

What Makes Yoshino Different?

Three long, natural edge raw wood lumber planks displayed on sawhorses in a woodworking workshop.

Tight Grain

Slow growth in managed conditions produces fine, even grain and long, true fibre — the defining character of Yoshino timber.

Verifiable Provenance

Each piece includes regional origin traceability, species, harvest method, and GOHO documentation.

Living Lineage

500+ year continuous forestry tradition. Yoshino trees are managed generationally, not industrially.

Natural Seasoning

Slow, controlled drying, sometimes over many years, reduces internal stress and ensures long-term dimensional stability.

A long, single-slab live edge wood board with natural grain resting on blocks in a lumber warehouse.

Singular Pieces

Each slab is unique. No two are the same. Selection is made from photographed inventory.

Secure Your Piece

Acquiring a Piece

Collector-grade Yoshino slabs are not a standard catalogue order. The process is straightforward: enquire with your requirements (species preference, approximate dimensions, application), and we will present available pieces from current warehouse inventory with photographs, dimensions, and pricing.

Pricing reflects the piece, not a per-metre-cubed rate. Rare and exceptional pieces are available; prices on application.