I have no idea how well it works, but I’m loving the minimalist zen-garden aesthetics of this Mast Humidifier from Masuza. The wood, supposedly, is naturally rot-resistant and imparts a lemony smell to the air. [via Gizmodo]
Discuss this article with the rest of the community on our Discord server!

I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.
View more articles by Sean Michael Ragan
Related Articles from Make:
Wicking action with a vast surface to mass ratio.
Brilliant and elegant!
A blogger could, supposedly, check the facts and then have the freedom to make unqualified statements as to the physical properties of Japanese Cypress, or any other naturally rot resistant wood.
Perhaps Sean doesn’t understand Japanese well enough to read the original source?
Seriously man…bag the snark already. Think Sean left out something important? Then how about you be helpful and fill us in, instead of making smart**s comments about someones contribution.
Wait, I don’t get it. How is this supposed to work without an Arduino?
I’m not sure how unqualified any statement about rot resistance can be since it’s not like you can say, white oak has 72 Mcguffins of rot resistance but red oak only has 3.
White oak and American cypress tend to be pretty rot resistant. Cooincidentaly, white oak and American cypress tend to like wet, or even swampy environments. Not sure how well this translates to Japanese Cypress.
@Austringer: Hinoki is often used to make wooden bathes here in Japan. Hinoki will actually produce an anti-bacterial environment when exposed to water, and proper treatment of a bath made of one is to always leave it wet lest the wood dry out and split.
I’m not sure how unqualified any statement about rot resistance can be since it’s not like you can say, white oak has 72 Mcguffins of rot resistance but red oak only has 3.
White oak and American cypress tend to be pretty rot resistant. Cooincidentaly, white oak and American cypress tend to like wet, or even swampy environments. Not sure how well this translates to Japanese Cypress.
Capillary action in action!
I poked them, and they put it up on a “US-friendly” site:
http://www.samuraiblack.com/Humidifier-mast.html
Anyone know if they are sold in the United States? I want one for my cigar humidor.