Yakusugi, the 1000-year-old essential oil!
The first trickle of oil from the rare and no longer harvested Yakushima Sugi, Wood from Japanese red cedar trees that are 1000 years old or more from the forest island of Yakushima off the southern coast of Japan, that inspired the princess Mononoke anime film. Some of these trees have been recorded at up to 7000 years old! Fortunately, they are now protected from any type of cutting or harvesting. That means there is an ever-dwindling supply of this gorgeous wood available, and there will be no more to come in our lifetime. Prices keep rising and items tend to increase in value over time. I feel very lucky to have access to this rare and valuable raw material!
The oil so far has a beautiful colour, as you can see from the photo, and has a very unusual opalescent sheen that is most visible in the meniscus.
I’m always struck by how older trees produce their own unique aromatic complexity and almost express an individual personality in their scent composition. Thousand-year plus Yakusigi seems to be no exception! It features a stunning complexity a world apart from regular young Japanese red cedar essential oil. The scent does feature classic cedar notes, but not heavy, resinous, sharp or camphorous at all. Instead, it presents a broad wood-aroma spectrum that is not obviously cedar, but something completely different. It overlaps slightly into some more sweet/floral oud notes and the edges of aged sandalwood top notes.
In addition, I notice a sunny medley of dried wildflowers, the scents of chalk and clay, lichen and moss…
I’m very curious to see how this develops as we extend the distillation time and perhaps age the oil a little while. #sugi #yakushima #yakusugi #artisanalessentialoil #japanesecedar #princessmononoke
