It is a slow-growing tree which grows to tall with a trunk up to in diameter. The bark is dark red-brown. The leaves are scale-like, long, blunt tipped, green above, and green below with a white stomatal band at the base of each scale-leaf. The cones are globose, in diameter, with 8–12 scales arranged in opposite pairs.
Related species
The plant is widespread in Japan. The related Chamaecyparis pisifera can be readily distinguished in its having pointed tips to the leaves and smaller cones. A similar cypress found on Taiwan is treated by different botanists as either a variety of this species or as a separate species Chamaecyparis taiwanensis; it differs in having smaller cones with smaller scales, and leaves with a more acute apex.
Timber
It is grown for its very high quality timber in Japan, where it is used as a material for building palaces, temples, shrines, traditional noh theatres, baths, table tennis blades and masu. The wood is lemon-scented, light pinkish-brown, with a rich, straight grain, and is highly rot-resistant. For example, Horyuji Temple and Osaka Castle are built from hinoki wood. The hinoki grown in Kiso, used for building Ise Shrine, are called 御神木 go-shin-boku, or "divine trees". Hinoki wood is used as a traditional Japanese stick incense for its light, earthy aroma. Hinoki pollen is a major cause of hay fever in Japan.
Ornamental cultivation
It is also a popular ornamental tree in parks and gardens, both in Japan and elsewhere in temperate climates, including western Europe and parts of North America. A large number of cultivars have been selected for garden planting, including dwarf forms, forms with yellow leaves, and forms with congested foliage. It is also often grown as bonsai.
Cultivars
Over 200 cultivars have been selected, varying in size from trees as large as the wild species, down to very slow-growing dwarf plants under high. A few of the best known are listed below. Those marked have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
'Crippsii' makes a broad conic golden-green crown with a vigorous leading shoot, growing to or more tall
'Fernspray Gold' –, arching sprays of green/yellow branches
'Kamarachiba' – spreading shrub, tall by wide, sprays of yellow-green
'Kosteri' – sprawling dwarf to tall by wide, with brilliant green foliage
'Lycopodioides' reaches up to tall, with somewhat fasciated foliage.
'Minima' – under after 20 years with mid-green foliage
'Tempelhof' growing to with green-yellow foliage that turns bronze in winter
'Tetragona Aurea' grows to around tall, with a narrow crown and irregular branching, the scale leaves in 4 equal ranks and branchlets tightly crowded, green and gold
