Daisugi is a Japanese forestry practice several centuries old: a cedar is pruned so that many straight shoots rise from a single stool, and one tree yields the timber of a stand. Japanese Woods takes that idea literally. The drawing was made in charcoal, and the marks keep the softness and slight smudge of the medium, so the trunks read as drawn rather than printed.
On grasscloth the effect changes again. The woven ground has a visible slub and a natural irregularity from panel to panel, and the charcoal line sits across it rather than into it, which gives the woodland an unexpected depth: the trees appear to stand in front of the weave. Grasscloth is a natural material and variation between rolls is inherent to it. Hung, that variation reads as atmosphere.
The roll is a wide 0.7 m and the repeat a full 100 cm on a half drop, which staggers the trunks between drops and stops any vertical line running the height of the wall. Used across all four walls of a study or a bedroom the illusion holds, and the room appears to sit inside a wood with no visible end to it. Low light suits it, and so does timber.
