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1. 北山杉のなめらかな質感と艶を存分に楽しめる家具も人気。

京都の中心地から約20km、車でわずか40分ほどに位置する京都市北山地域が、北山丸太の産地。室町時代（14世紀）から続く、京都特有の自然素材です。丸太そのものが“伝統工芸品”と称される所以は、その育成方法にあります。厳選した親木から穂摘みした穂木を苗木に育て、計画的に植林し、6〜7年後から4年ごとに、幹に沿って枝の付け根ギリギリを払う「枝打ち」を行います。こうした手作業により、真っ直ぐで丸く、緻密な年輪をもつ、非常に滑らかな木肌の丸太が生産されます。さらに、育成中の幹全体に箸のような材料を巻きつけ、「絞り」と呼ばれる波状の模様を生み出す「絞丸太」も、北山丸太独特の技法。千利休が完成させた茶の湯文化を支える茶室や数寄屋の建築用材、おもに床柱として重用されるほか、現在では壁材や家具の素材としても活用されています。

Kitayama Ward, located about 20km from the center of Kyoto and only about 40 minutes away by car, is the production area of Kitayama cedar logs (Kitayama-maruta).This natural material has been unique to Kyoto since the Muromachi period (14th century). The logs themselves are considered a "traditional craft" because of the special way they are raised. Saplings are picked from carefully selected parent trees and grown into seedlings, are planted, and then from the age of 6 or 7 they are "pruned" every four year to remove the roots of the branches along the trunk. This manual process produces straight, round logs with very dense tree rings and smooth bark. Another feature of Kitayama is the "shibori log", where a wavy pattern is obtained by winding a tool similar to chopsticks around the entire trunk during the growth period. With the perfection brought to the tea ceremony by Sen no Rikyu, Kitayama log became a favored building material for traditional sukiya-style tea rooms. This practice continues today, but the wood is now also highly valued as material for constructing walls or building furniture.