Description
Artisanal manufacture of exclusive, luxurious furniture. Along with Japan, the tree’s eastern Asian habitat includes the Korean peninsula, northeast China, and the southern portion of Russia’s largest island, Sakhalin.
The mizunara oak is a variant of Quercus mongolica; translated literally, the word’s two components – mizu and nara – mean “water oak”. The wood owes its name to its high moisture content. This, however, is also what makes the wood softer and much more difficult to form into the desired shape. Moreover, mizunara trees develop more branches and grow in a rather crooked fashion, which presents coopers with further challenges. As if that weren’t enough, a mizunara oak needs to be at least 150 years old to reach a size suitable for obtaining staves that can be used to manufacture 500-litre puncheons.
