Kurumi: Its Connection to Walnut and Warm Brown Wood
WOOD DICTIONARY
Familiar for its edible nuts, walnut is also a wood used in furniture and small objects. Kurumi is the Japanese word for walnut, but in timber sales the names kurumi and walnut may be used separately for different species or trade categories. Let us look at the names and colors in turn.
The photographs are examples of the color and grain associated with each wood or figure. Every piece of natural wood is different; the sheet you receive will not have exactly the same color or grain as the photographs.
Names and basic facts
- Trade name
- Kurumi (Walnut) MORI KOUGEI: Kurumi (Walnut) A4 Veneer Sheet
- Classification
- Juglans, the walnut genus, in the Juglandaceae family Hokkaido Research Organization, Forest Products Research Institute: Japanese Walnut
- Representative Japanese timber species
- Onigurumi, or Japanese walnut. This does not identify an individual product solely from its trade name. Hokkaido Research Organization, Forest Products Research Institute: Japanese Walnut
- English name
- Walnut. Onigurumi is known as Japanese walnut. Hokkaido Research Organization, Forest Products Research Institute: Japanese Walnut
How kurumi relates to walnut
MORI KOUGEI handles kurumi and walnut under separate trade names. Our kurumi product description explains that Japanese walnut is lighter in tone than North American black walnut. Neither category is a single uniform color, so do not assume they can be substituted on the basis of the name alone; check the degree of lightness you want. MORI KOUGEI: Kurumi (Walnut) A4 Veneer Sheet
Onigurumi, or Japanese walnut, is a representative walnut timber in Japan. Its properties provide the basis for this introduction, but the trade name kurumi alone is not used to assign every sheet of this A4 product to one botanical species. Hokkaido Research Organization, Forest Products Research Institute: Japanese Walnut / MORI KOUGEI: Kurumi (Walnut) A4 Veneer Sheet
Brown heartwood and light sapwood
In Japanese walnut, the heartwood toward the center of the trunk is a muted brown and the outer sapwood grayish white, with a relatively clear boundary. The wood has luster and is used in furniture and craftwork for its grain and color. The impression of color changes with the part of the tree from which it was taken. Hokkaido Research Organization, Forest Products Research Institute: Japanese Walnut
The wood is also described as semi-ring-porous because vessel size and arrangement change from earlywood to latewood. You need not memorize these microscopic distinctions, but looking at the flow of growth rings and the range of light and dark, rather than imagining a uniform brown, helps you recognize walnut’s character. Hokkaido Research Organization, Forest Products Research Institute: Japanese Walnut
The trunk, as well as the nuts, serves everyday life
Japanese walnut can be worked to a smooth surface and is used for furniture, stationery, craft objects, and interiors. Its fruits are an important food for squirrels and other small animals. Nuts carried away for storage can also help spread the tree. The familiar nut and the brown furniture wood are two different faces of the same tree. Hokkaido Research Organization, Forest Products Research Institute: Japanese Walnut
Make the most of grain on a small surface
MORI KOUGEI kurumi A4 sheets measure 210 × 297 mm and are approximately 0.25 mm thick, with natural wood backed by industrial washi paper. Quarter-cut and flat-cut options are available for applications such as furniture edging, resurfacing flat wooden areas, and marquetry. As a thin material that creates a visible wood surface, it should be considered separately from the thickness and strength of solid furniture timber. MORI KOUGEI: Kurumi (Walnut) A4 Veneer Sheet
For a box lid or a flat decorative face on a small object, try laying out the grain vertically and horizontally before cutting. When repairing existing furniture, matching the name kurumi alone is not enough: comparing color depth and grain direction can help reduce visual mismatch. MORI KOUGEI: Kurumi (Walnut) A4 Veneer Sheet
Shop Kurumi (Walnut) A4 Veneer ↗
Explore related woods
This article draws on publicly available sources from Japan and abroad, with AI used to support research and organization.