Xylophone made of thinned cypress wood

This xylophone, named Hinokkin,  is made of Japanese cypress timber from forest thinning. I'm a member of Foresters Kagawa, an NPO engaged in forest activities, and this xylophone was made by an architect in this group.

It has a range of one octive. Each bar was mode of the trunk, being cut into quarters and tuned up by scraping off from inside or shortening it. The more you scrape off or shorten it, the lower its pitch goes. The timber needs to be dried for about one year before being processed. 

Hinokkin is made mostly of thinned cypress timber, except for strings used to hang the bars. Its mallet is also made of cypress branches. If you fell the Japanese cypress in autumn, you can easily peel its outer skin; It is hard to peel it by hand in winter, and in summer it usually go moldy after being peeled. 

We, as members of Foresters Kagawa, visit kindergarten and nursery schools in Kagawa Prefecture to tell children about forests and trees. In this project, I play this thinned cypress xylophone and tell them about the cypress in the forest and how to make this instrument, as well as letting them play it.

Below is the video showing how it sounds.