Is 'Asada Cherry' actually cherry?
Every time I see a certain audio accessory manufacturer selling insulators and the like under the name 'Asada Cherry,' I feel uneasy.
Asada is a deciduous broad-leaved tree of the genus Ostrya in the Betulaceae family. While it is distributed throughout Japan from Hokkaido to Kyushu, the timber produced is mainly from Hokkaido. The fact that a tree species with absolutely no relation to the cherry tree of the Rosaceae family is calling itself 'XX Cherry' stems from the history of the timber industry circulating Japanese birch as 'Kaba-zakura' (Birch Cherry) or simply 'Cherry' as a substitute for the scarce Japanese mountain cherry (Yamazakura).
After Japanese birch became rare and could no longer serve as a substitute, other species in the Betulaceae family likely began to be circulated as 'Mizume Cherry' and 'Asada Cherry.'
(Both Japanese birch (Udai-kanba) and Japanese cherry birch (Mizume) are deciduous broad-leaved trees of the genus Betula in the Betulaceae family.)
In a book on wood I have on hand, there is a warning like this in the entry for Mizume, and it is likely the same for Japanese birch and Asada.
Please be aware that it may be traded under the market name 'Cherry.'
Personally, I don't think Japanese mountain cherry and birch species look alike at all, but since I have them on hand, I compared them.
Japanese birch has now become a prized wood.
My mentor often used Japanese birch, so I started using it myself, but I have recently stopped using it much because it feels a bit too heavy for the side panels of musical instruments (clavichords).
The color is deep and the grain is unique.
When planed, the texture is clearly visible.
Japanese birch has a slightly dry, rough feel, while Japanese mountain cherry feels moist.
Both have dense wood surfaces, but while the vessels are visible in Japanese birch, they are almost invisible to the naked eye in Japanese mountain cherry.
The specific gravity of Japanese birch is likely slightly higher; it feels heavier when held.
Characterized by a grain that runs perpendicular to the growth rings.
This is a clavichord made of cherry wood.
I used Japanese mountain cherry for the side panels and keys, and Japanese bird cherry for the panels.
They might be using the names 'XX Cherry' for their products simply because those are the names currently in circulation, but to me, this is nothing more than a bad industry practice, and labeling that seems to piggyback on that is, at the very least, not conscientious.
If they are confident in their products, I think they should use the legitimate tree names.
In English, birch species are 'birch' and cherry is 'cherry'; there is no way these would be confused.
Some seem to view the practice of collectively calling things that resemble cherry as 'cherry' as a cultural norm, but that is just self-serving logic; if you sold Asunaro (false cypress) under the name 'Hinoki' (Japanese cypress) just because it resembles it, that would be fraud.
The lumber dealer I work with explicitly states that they do not call birch 'cherry.'
It is a question of professional integrity.