SHINRIN-YOKU · A RECOGNIZED HEALTH PRACTICE IN JAPAN
There's a reason this practice started in a hinoki forest.
Japan wrote forest bathing into national healthcare.
The forest they started it in was a hinoki forest.
In 1982, the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries coined the term shinrin-yoku. It translates to forest bathing, but it isn't about getting wet. It's about being slowly and intentionally immersed in a forest, taking it in through every sense. The government built it into a national public health program at a time when Japan was dealing with extreme work culture, rising rates of stress-related illness, and the phenomenon they call karoshi, or death from overwork. They needed something low-cost, accessible, and effective. They built it out of what was already there.
Today, forest therapy bases are certified across Japan, and shinrin-yoku is studied all around the world. What the Japanese government built into public health in 1982 is now part of a broader conversation about how environment, scent and stress recovery work together.
a practice, in time
Forty-four years from a single Ministry memo to a daily ritual practiced on six continents.
1982
The Ministry coins shinrin-yoku; the first walk is held in Akasawa.
1990
First clinical studies measure phytoncide effects on the immune system.
2004
Japan certifies its first official forest-therapy bases nationwide.
Today
Practiced and prescribed in clinics and research programs worldwide.
the science of forest bathing
What forty years of research actually shows.
Three studies that help make sense of what shinrin-yoku has been pointing at since 1982. None were conducted on our products specifically. They're the broader research on forest bathing and the compounds released by trees.
Immune cells
Forest bathing trip
A study in International Journal of Immunopathology and Pharmacology examined adults who spent time in a Japanese forest and found measurable changes in natural killer cell activity. Effects were observed up to 7 days after the trip ended.
Li et al., Int J Immunopathol Pharmacol, 2007Inhalation and stress markers
Phytoncide inhalation
A 2009 study in the same journal looked at phytoncide inhalation and measured changes in stress-related markers including adrenaline and noradrenaline. Alpha-pinene was among the compounds present in the forest air.
Li et al., Int J Immunopathol Pharmacol, 2009Phytoncide research review
Meta-analysis
A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis examined the broader body of research on phytoncide exposure and immune cell activity, finding consistent effects across multiple studies.
Phytoncides & immunity meta-analysis, 2024what the numbers actually mean
A closer look at what the research shows.
Phytoncides are the volatile organic compounds trees release into the air. They're part of how trees defend themselves against insects and bacteria. When humans walk through a forest, we breathe them in. The compounds at the center of the research are found in high concentrations in hinoki wood oil. The chemistry is real, even if you can't always get to the forest.
In some of the same studies, adrenaline and noradrenaline levels in urine were measured before and after forest trips. These are stress hormones the body produces under load. They rise when we're pushed, and fall when we recover. The research found that levels were lower after time in the forest. Part of what's drawn researchers' attention to the practice for so long.
Akasawa Natural Recreation Forest, where the first shinrin-yoku event was held in 1982, is a hinoki cypress forest with trees over three hundred years old and phytoncide levels six times higher than a typical forest. That concentration is why much of the early research happened here. A bottle of hinoki oil is a higher concentration of the same chemistry.
let's be real
Nothing beats actually being in a forest.
If you can spend real time in a real forest, do it. We weren't built to live indoors under fluorescent light, breathing recycled air and looking at screens. The body knows the difference between a forest and a feed.
But modern life is what it is. Most of us live in cities and can't drive into a hinoki forest in Japan every time the day starts to feel like too much. The next best thing is to bring the forest into the spaces we actually live.
Carry the forest with you when you can't go
The compounds at the center of shinrin-yoku research, alpha-pinene and limonene among them, are the same ones that come out of high-quality hinoki oil. That's part of why we built the brand around hinoki specifically rather than blending oils from multiple sources.
We flew to Japan to find a supplier we trusted. Spent a week in the town the forest sits in. Met the owner, walked the trees, watched the distillery, saw where new trees get planted. We've worked with the same source ever since. Every bottle is an unbroken line from that forest to your personal space.
It's not a replacement for the forest. It's a piece of it that travels with you.
100% pure steam-distilled from hinoki trees in Japan.
Vocabulary
The words behind the practice.
