CUTTING BOARD - SAKURA -

Why yamazakura is the right wood
for a cutting board.

The somei-yoshino cherry everyone knows from blossom season is a planted cultivar, every tree genetically identical. Japanese mountain cherry (yamazakura) grows wild, and each tree is genetically its own — so colour varies with where it grew and how long it stood.

These are the qualities that make it right for a cutting or serving board.

Beautiful grain

The depth of cherry grain lifts whatever you plate on it.

Hard-wearing

Cherry is hard and strong, so it resists scratches and holds up to bread knives and paring knives without showing marks. Its density also keeps stains and water marks from setting in.

Beauty at the table

The soft cherry tone and the grain make any plating look more refined.

It changes as you use it

Colour and lustre deepen with use, and the character grows richer. Cherry carries the seasons and the aesthetic sense of Japan — a material that turns an everyday table into something more.

Selecting the wood

Japan's last remaining kobiki sawyer selects yamazakura suited to the Sakura Cutting Board from forests across the country.

Because the quality of yamazakura varies with where it grows, every log is checked thoroughly for damage and rot, and only timber that meets our own standard is used.

We also work only with logs felled between October and April, when moisture content is at its lowest, which limits mould and cracking and raises both durability and quality.

Straight grain (masame) only

From the yamazakura we source, we select only single boards of masame — timber where the grain runs perfectly straight.

Yamazakura differs from tree to tree in colour and character, and it is prone to warping and cracking as it dries. That makes itame, where the fibres run in no fixed direction, and glued-up panels difficult to keep stable — they tend to distort over time.

Masame of sufficient width and depth can only come from a tree more than a hundred years old, and a single log yields very little of it. KINARI uses that rare straight-grained yamazakura without compromise, delivering a board that is stable, beautiful and good to use.

Drying

A board cut from a mature yamazakura holds a great deal of moisture, so it cannot be finished into a cutting board straight away. Each one is stored carefully in our own warehouse through at least a year of air drying, followed by two months of kiln drying.

During drying we control humidity with dehumidifiers and circulate the air regularly to prevent warping and mould. Finishing under that level of quality control is what lets us deliver a board you can use with confidence for years.

Finished by hand

Every piece is finished by a skilled craftsman who checks the feel of the surface by hand. That hand finishing — something no machine can reproduce — is what gives each piece its comfortable feel and quiet beauty.

The proportions follow the golden ratio so the board sits naturally in the kitchen, and a soft roundness throughout makes it easy to handle — beautiful from every angle. The thickness is set at 20 mm, the minimum that prevents warping and cracking, balancing solidity with ease of use.

Gifts for these moments