Hinoki Essential Oil, Japan

Hinoki Essential Oil

AKA Hinoki cypress, Japanese cypress--a beautifully subtle woody oil, with warm, sweet, soft fruit undertones. Considered anti-bacterial as well.

Product Information

Chamaecyparis obtusa.  

Distilled in Japan from sawdust left over from traditional uses of sacred hinoki wood. Hinoki means “fire tree.”

Our hinoki comes from the Kiso Valley protected forest in Nagano prefecture. This is a sacred, protected area, dedicated to the Goddess of the Sun, Amaterasu. The forest acts as buffer between the sanctuary  and also provides timber for the shrine there. 

Kyūiki-rin (宮域林) means Shrine Precinct Forest and it also provides the timber used for construction of the Shrine, which is rebuilt every 20 years or so. Whether this mirrors the earths journey around the sun, a human generation, the cyclic continuation of life, or as a way a to preserve craftmanship, or a bit of each, I'm not sure. As the process of building and dismantling is quite long, there is usually some activity taking place. 

The shrine trees have their bases wrapped in bamboo mats; this is to protect the bark from wear and tear as Shrine visitors touch the bark for luck, and over time, this can damage the tree. 

Hinoki is known as a very high quality wood, and is one of the preferred building materials in Japan, especially for its subtle aroma, which continues to exude for years. There are instances in Japan of hinoki structures up to 1300 years old and it’s still possible to smell the odor of the wood. Some of the other traditional uses include Noh masks, bathtubs, temples, palaces, rice mixing tubs, table tennis handles and masu, the small square saki boxes we find in some sushi bars. The wood itself is light pinkish, with a rich, straight grain and it resists rot.

It's the shaving and dust from bathtub and ofuro carvings that is distilled into Hinoki essential oil.

---------------------------

Considered to be anti-bacterial, hinoki trees are endemic to Japan and are also found in Taiwan

Hinoki essential oil is a fine woody ethereal odor with lemony notes and a warm and sweet undernote.

Arctander says

Hinoki root oil is a pale yellow liquid of dry, woody, camphoraceous odor with a peculiar warm-sweet, almost spicy undertone. The oil consists almost entirely of terpineol, monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes.