hinoki bench

During my internship, I was fortunate enough to be invited by a colleague to visit his family in Toyama. Upon arriving at their spacious traditional Japanese home, I gained insight into their generations-old woodworking business. My colleague and I started a project together to make a bench and a matching table. There was plenty of excess wood in the workshop that we could use, and we ended up with hinoki planks that were almost the right size. The main challenge was designing something simple and suitable using these planks. After a few sketches, we decided on the size. Inspired by Bauhaus style and minimalism, the design matched the theme of a German creating something at a Japanese woodworking workshop. After some sawing, bonding and sanding, we finished the structure in a day. It is now standing in the entranceway of the house, providing a shaded resting area. Hinoki wood is often used for bathtubs or sinks in Japan because it smells really nice. Unfortunately, we don't make good use of this feature here. Nobody would ever notice, but the seating area is actually made of sugi wood, which is cheaper and more commonly used. Ultimately, the design we wanted just wasn't feasible with the hinoki wood available to us, but we're still satisfied with the outcome, and there isn't a significant colour difference. While the raw wood looks good, I would now treat it to match the interior of the house.