Core Kyoto: 5x4

Kitayama Cedar: Lending a Quality of Polished Dignity and Beauty

The soaring forest of tall, straight cedars in Kitayama, in Kyoto’s northwest, is a glorious sight. Kitayama cedar — known for its light color, uniform thickness, and smooth, knotless trunk — is treasured as a material for floors and pillars in Japanese architecture. And daisugi cedars, pruned to produce dozens of tree-like offshoots from one trunk, are prized in gardens for their aesthetic value. Discover the allure of Kitayama cedar through the foresters who inherited their management.