Leaving the factory, we were also given a tour of the great nature of Shimanto. The Shimanto River is the most famous river in Shimanto, but the mountain forests surrounding it also celebrate the overwhelming power of the river. Many of the trees were planted after the war and are more than 50 years old. And even now, in areas deep in the mountains where thinning is in progress, cypress and cedar trees are being planted.
Sauna made of Shimanto cypressSHIMANTO OUCHIWe also had the opportunity to experience a "mobile cypress sauna hut," not the popular tent sauna. It is a mobile cypress sauna hut, not a trendy tent sauna, that can be assembled by two people in about five minutes and folded up to be loaded into a standard light van.
I wondered if there was a sealing problem, but I was able to perspire well. The firewood used in the sauna also makes effective use of cypress. As mentioned above, it is also known as "fire wood" because of its high combustion efficiency and dependability.
Finally, we were also shown the lumberyard where all kinds of lumber is stored.
It was of course the first time for me to see such a large quantity of logs and lumber, and I was reminded anew that Japan is a country of mountains, forests, and trees. Even thinned lumber can be this large in size. It was a learning experience for me, as my preconceived notions were overturned at every turn.
In the past year or two, we have experienced what has been called a wood shock, a spike in the price of wood. As a result of the huge fiscal stimulus and low interest rate policy in the U.S., citizens who have become homebound due to remote work are now buying new homes in the suburbs or remodeling their homes, causing an increase in demand for housing construction. This has led to a tight supply and demand for lumber worldwide, causing the price of lumber to rise.
This trend naturally affects Japan as well: since the beginning of 2021, import prices of logs and lumber used for housing construction and other purposes have been rising, and this trend has led to an increase in domestic log and lumber prices.
Since most of the lumber used in the construction of Japanese homes is imported, there are some who argue that the soaring price of imported lumber should be the catalyst for a switch to domestically produced lumber, but structural problems such as labor shortages make it difficult to easily increase the supply of domestically produced lumber.
Despite these problems in the domestic forestry industry, it is also true that domestic timber is now attracting a lot of attention. Although a movement such as SHFW may be modest, it is a wonderful project to highlight Japanese trees, lumber, and Hinoki cypress.
