What should we call it? What is the difference between the two terms? Why is there so much confusion between Yakisugi and Shou Sugi Ban in Western countries such as in Europe and North America?
We were very surprised when we started promoting our collections to hear about the term Shou Sugi Ban either in France, the UK, Canada, the US, Italy, South Africa, etc. in addition of the real term used in Japan: Yakisugi「焼杉」.
Doing a little more research, we understood that it originally started with a semantic mis-reading from a difference between Chinese and Japanese characters.
As you may know, Chinese influence on Japanese culture refers to the impact of continental Asian influences transmitted through or originating in China on Japanese institutions, culture, religion, language and society. Specific elements of its culture such as Taoism, Buddhism, astronomy and language have been profoundly influenced by China over the course of centuries.
Chinese characters have been used in Japan since then and they are called Kanji.
Kanji is the term for the adopted Chinese characters used in the Japanese written language. The Chinese writing system influenced the spoken Japanese language first, and thus “provided key vehicles for intellectual creativity”. Its origin in Japan dates back to the Kofun Period, and its introduction is believed to be between the years 300 and 710 A.D.
In the beginning, writing in Japan was primarily done by immigrant clerks who wrote in Chinese.
Within the 7th century, Japanese scholars-aristocrats began to learn Chinese through reading and writing, with the purpose of doing business.
Kanji readings are categorized as either on’yomi (音読み, literally “sound reading”, from Chinese) or kun’yomi (訓読み, literally “meaning reading”, native Japanese), and most characters have at least two readings, at least one of each.
Most often, a character will be used for both sound and meaning, and it is simply a matter of choosing the correct reading based on which word it represents. Which as you can understand is our semantic issue.
To top it off, modern Japanese has two additional syllabaries: hiragana, and katakana. So, three scripting systems in total.
Each kanji ideogram corresponds to a word. More words are created by combining characters. There are over 50,000 ideograms. A group of 1945 characters is used as everyday kanji characters. Students have to learn from 2,000 to 3,000 ideograms to read newspapers and books. Kanji is used to signify nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.
In medieval Japan, kanji was given both Chinese and Japanese pronunciations, and context decided the pronunciation. When kanji refers to a Japanese word, Japanese pronunciation is used. If the word is derived from Chinese, then the Chinese pronunciation is used.
However, kanji alone is insufficient to represent all sounds in the Japanese language. Hiragana and katakana characters were developed to handle Japanese sounds and words with no kanji equivalent. Hiragana is based on the character set of Chinese calligraphy and is used to form sentences. Its symbols are written with a curving brush style. Katakana is a simplification of the original kanji character strokes and is mostly used for foreign words. Today, Japanese words can be written with only kanji ideograms, kanji and hiragana, or all three scripts.
Centuries ago, builders found that Japanese cedar yielded the best results from burning. They called this new process Yakisugi. “Yaki” means burnt or treated with heat. Its ideogram is written as 「焼」and the words sounds like “yaki.” “Sugi” or「杉」means cypress (Cryptomeria japonica).
In the West, this type of cypress is better known as Japanese cedar. A “wood plank” is 「板」or “ita.” The final three-word combination is yakisugita, or 「焼杉板」which literally translates to a burnt cedar board.
A mistranslation caused Yakisugi to become synonymous with Shou Sugi Ban.
It occurred when the compound word 「焼杉板」was read in a mix of Japanese and Chinese pronunciation. In Chinese, 「焼」is read and pronounced as “shou.” “Ban” came from saying「板」in Mandarin. If you read the compound in original Japanese, the result would have been the correct Yakisugi or yakisugita. However, because it was misread, the translation used in the West became Shou Sugi Ban.
In the end 2 different terms with the same incredible eye-catching look but with different wood
Burning wood for building materials is not new. It’s done all over the world and from the beginning of ages. Is there a difference today between Yakisugi and Shou Sugi Ban?
Nowadays, for purists like us, Yakisugi refers to the original Japanese charring method using Japanese cedar called Sugi and natural oils. Authentic Yakisugi have exceptional weatherability; it is low maintenance and maintain its durability and beauty for a lifetime.
Shou Sugi Ban describes a general method of burning any type of wood combined with natural and synthetic oils to approach the same aesthetic and sometimes not with the same durability.