Ingenious. The Japanese art of daisugi uses bonsai techniques to cultivate pruned cedar trees to produce straight, knot-free lumber. This method of sustainable forestry accelerates growth and produces stronger cedars on less land.

Similar to the art of bonsai, daisugi basically involved heavily pruning a so-called “mother cedar tree” so that only the straightest shoots are allowed to grow.

Daisugi was developed in the 14th c. when Sukiya-zukuri, the architectural style characterized by the use of natural materials and wood, was in high fashion. Kitayama cedar logs were used as pillars, but there just wasn’t enough land to grow these trees, thus daisugi was born.