Sometimes, a paulownia wood box lid gets stuck but that is only temporary due to its characteristics.

Paulownia wood boxes are chosen for storing valuable items in Japan since they are strong against humidity and dryness. We have received a query about the box from our customer as below.

“I have heard that a long paulownia box warps slightly over time so that it becomes difficult to open – have you any experience of this?”

Very interesting question. Regarding the warping issue of a wood box over time, we have never experienced that before. We see a lot of paulownia boxes including our customer’s properties but even a several hundred years old one did not warp at all. It opened smoothly. So we are sure there is no worries about warping of paulownia boxes.

Then why did the customer hear about that? The characteristics of paulownia boxes could be related.

 

Characteristics

Sometimes, the paulownia wood boxes are difficult to open when the humidity is very high because they expand and fill any gaps to shut out open air. The lid becomes very tight. When the air is dry, it shrinks and ventilates.The people, who had trouble in opening the lid, may spread that rumor. Please remember that the wood will swell or shrink depending on its moisture content.

 

Actual Old Paulownia Box

Here are some pictures of our 100 to 150 years old paulownia wood box. We can open and close the lid smoothly.

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Please see the below video for your reference.

 

Japan has a humid climate, so paulownia boxes have been used to store kakejiku (hanging scrolls).

Try to use it for better protection of your kakejiku.