The Yakisugi Blog | Nakamoto Forestry

Published November 6, 2019

How to Tell Which End of the Plank is Crown-Up and Which End is Roots-Down on Shou Sugi Ban Siding

This post is trivia for most people and is written with traditional tradesmen in mind. You might need to be OCD and infatuated with wood to appreciate this. A little extra care during install can make an unpainted siding field look so much better over the long term. Our...

Published October 22, 2019

Nakamoto Forestry Yakisugi on a Zero-Energy Project

Eric Antonini’s home, just a 35-minute drive from our warehouse in Portland, Oregon, is the first of its kind in the Lake Oswego area south of Portland. With a background in commercial real estate and management of a yoga studio chain, Eric got excited about building his own home...

Published October 18, 2019

Wood Longevity vs. Color Longevity with Yakisugi “Shou Sugi Ban”

This is a long one because this subject is important, complex, nuanced, and fun. Architects and owners come to us with an almost universal request to guide them into a siding material that will have as little future maintenance as possible while keeping the same color as long as possible. ...

Published September 24, 2019

An Outside-The-Box ADU Designed to Maximize Rental Income

We don't get to meet many of our customers since we have an efficient distribution setup directly shipping all over North America without a traveling sales team. Local projects are super fun since we get to meet our customers and see the wood installed. A few of them are...

Published September 18, 2019

A Tour of Japan’s Historic Yakisugi

We landed at Tokyo Narita earlier this summer on a cloudy Monday afternoon, legs sore from our ten-hour direct flight from Portland. It was my first experience in Japan, and I was nervous. Not because I couldn’t read any of the signs, speak the language, or navigate the complex...

Published May 28, 2019

Japanese Influence on Western Architecture Part 2: The Early Craftsmen Movement

During the transition out of the 19th century (esp 1890-1910) and into modernity, Western architects started implementing Japanese architectural details and thought in order to further their inspired vision. At the time, architecture seemed to be heading toward an industrialized future of uninspired balance and materials. What began...

Published May 7, 2019

Japanese Influence on Western Architecture Part 1: The Early Period (Pre-Edo to Craftsmen Movement)

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of visiting Japan, one of the first major differences that you might have noticed is the architecture. Cities such as Tokyo and Osaka that were levelled in WWII are dominated by the same metal, concrete, and glass that seemingly populate every other...

Published March 28, 2019

Yakisugi (Shou Sugi Ban) 80-Year Siding Longevity: Truth or Rubbish?

Over and over people ask us if yakisugi (shou sugi ban) will last 80 years as they’ve read. When we ask them where they got that information they always have read it on the internet one place or another. But is it true? I’ve travelled a...

Published March 11, 2019

“Yakisugi” or “Shou Sugi Ban”? Learn What You Should Call It, and Why

Learn more about the linguistic background and why there is so much confusion between “Yakisugi” and “Shou Sugi Ban” in North America and Europe. When we started researching the North American and European heat-treated wood market a few years ago we found that the word “shou sugi ban” has...

Published February 25, 2019

Rendering Field Images for Architects & Designers

Realistic renderings of projects are incredibly important to the design process for architects and designers, and can cultivate an environment of trust between you and the client. In today’s economy of visual currency, sometimes the most effective way to sell someone on an idea is to show them an...