Last week, I visited Yamashiro Mokumoku in Tokushima Prefecture, a company I had the privilege of working with. This is a factory that uses cedar from Tokushima Prefecture, and does everything from planting trees in the mountains to felling, thinning, and making laminated timber products.
A lot of logs are being taken down from the mountain of cypress and cedar. They are 4 meters long. Today, I was able to see the logs being taken down from the mountain and was shown the mountain, which was my first experience. But it's cold... There is a mountain castle on top of the mountain. It's really cold.
Hurry to the mountain
There is a mountain near the lumberyard. You might wonder if you really have to climb it, as there is a wall of earth on the right and a cliff on the left. They say they have kept the width wide enough for a 10-ton truck to pass through, but it is extremely scary.
The president of the company was driving and we were rocked up the mountain road for about 20 minutes. It was a mildly amusing experience. There were some muddy spots and he said with a cool face, "If we stop here, our tires will get stuck, so we can't stop," as the car scraped against big rocks on the road, bang bang bang. So tough.
At this point, you can see how difficult this job is. What's more, this road was built entirely in-house from scratch, which is also amazing.
We arrived at the removal site! There is still snow left. This area seems to have been neatly thinned out, and even though we are in the mountains, sunlight is shining in.
By the way, this is an area where trees have been planted without any maintenance. There is no sunlight and the trees are narrow, so large trees cannot grow. Also, pruning, which is the process of removing branches, has not been done, so the branches are still attached to the bottom.
When such trees are cut down, they become knotty and unusable, so they are turned into fuel, etc.
on the other hand...
This area has been well cared for, with pruning and thinning. The sunlight comes in and the trees grow comfortably. This allows for large trees with few knots and a diameter of about 30cm to 50cm to grow. Such materials are used for house pillars and furniture, becoming a part of people's lives.
By the way, while cedar branches fall off on their own (in reality they fall off during typhoons, etc.), cypress branches are hard, so if you don't prune them, they will become full of knots.
So, please remember that the main material of Nakayoshi Library furniture is cypress. Cypress trees must be felled from well-managed mountains, otherwise they will be full of knots and cannot be used for furniture. I understand very well the value of knot-free trees, and the fact that we can grow trees with many knot-free parts is thanks to someone who manages the mountains well. I think.
Building roads in the mountains, maintaining them, planting trees and cutting them down. It is said that forestry is not booming because the cost of maintaining the mountains is higher than the cost of cutting logs. However, when you look at the actual situation like this, if someone doesn't do this work, domestic timber won't be available, the mountains won't be properly managed, and it could lead to disasters. So it's a truly noble job.
Nakayoshi Library, which specializes in processing, would also like to be able to show customers how these logs grow. So how can we make that happen? Please look forward to what's to come.
It was quite a thrill to walk the mountain path for the first time, but the people working there were really cool. That's all for now. See you next time.
