Best 1-ply Hinoki Blade

This is my first post and I have been living and working in Japan for about 2 years now. I have joined a table tennis club and there are many good J-Pen players in my club. Many of the players in my club favor Kiso Hinoki J-pen rackets made by Kokutaku, Nittaku, and Darker. When I first joined the club I had never heard of Kokutaku, but as I started to try out some of their Kokutaku rackets I realized that the Kiso Hinoki quality and build was often better than those of Butterfly and other J-pen rackets. I found out from my table tennis coach who owns a Pro Table Tennis shop that the reason why Kokutaku rackets are often better in quality and build is because they have a good stock of high quality Kiso Hinoki wood that is between 230 to 250 years old and in the process of making their J-pen rackets they dry the Kiso Hinoki for 6 years as opposed to many other companies that only dry their Kiso Hinoki for 1 or sometimes 3 years. I have several Kokutaku rackets and I believe that they are very good and I would recommend people to try one if they want to. Sorry for the long post. :)

Many people in my club really like their Darker blades due to the quality and price. I have a Darker Speed 90 and I think it is nice and worth the money as opposed to Butterfly's J-pens. Butterfly blades are sometimes a little on the heavy side due to the drying process which is often only 1 year because they want to mass produce their blades quickly. Overall Darker is great and actually from what I have seen and heard, more people in Japan prefer Darker, Kokutaku, and Nittaku Kiso Hinoki rackets as opposed to Butterfly's Kiso Hinoki rackets.

I would say that it is about 50 50 in my club and when it is time to change blades, most people in my club are kind of brand loyal and try to get the same model again. But some of the older members of my club often say they like Kokutaku a little more because the blades are a bit lighter than some Darker blades and they don't mind paying 2000 or 3000 yen for a blade they will use for probably another 5 or 6 years. I hope this information helps.

Wow ! You are very lucky to be in such favourable situation. May I have one more question ?
I would like very much to know which type of Carbon J-pen is popular in Japan (especially Darker or Kokutaku). Thanks.

I think Kokutaku's J-pen Laser Drive is quite good because it has a high quality Kiso Hinoki with fiberglass and carbon in the middle. I have the Kokutaku Laser Carbon shake hand which is the J-pen Laser Drive equivilant. I would honestly have to say I think the Laser Carbon shakehand has better control, more feel, lighter and is softer than the Butterfly's Timo Ball Spirit. I think Darker does not make carbon J-pen's because the tradition of their company is in making 1 ply Hinoki J-pens, but they do have carbon shake hand rackets. I hope this information helps.

Thanks for your information Malvin.

Haha, in that case I have two more questions: Can you ask your coach what is the difference between 9 mm and 10 mm single ply Hinoki J-pen blade in performance? I have already one blade 9 mm, is it worth it to buy another one with 10 mm thickness?

I think quality of a Kiso Hinoki is merited from how straight the lines are are, how dense the lines are and how long it has been dried (weight). In my new Kokutaku catalogue it advertises a new 10mm Super Cho 1D100 model. The advertised price of this racket is 20,000 yen before tax, but I think iruiru gives you 20% discount on that so it would be like 16,000 yen. My coach just got his new Kokutaku goods in last week, so iruiru might not have recieved their new Kokutaku goods yet. About weight, it is often better to get a lighter Kiso Hinoki J-pen because your rubber might be heavy, but maybe not. The reason why older Kiso Hinoki is more expensive is because their is often higher grain density and the wood is often dried for a longer period of time, thus reducing the weight of the racket. I think a good way to maybe get a good 10mm Kokutaku or Darker racket is by emailing iruiru about the availiablity of the racket and if they get a batch of them, ask them to weigh them out and ask them to look for the one with the straightest lines. The most important thing is that all the lines are pointing in the same direction and personally I like my 10mm J-pens 85 grams or less. But actually finding a 10mm Kokutaku or Darker under 85 grams is pretty difficult because even in a batch of 10mm J-pens, the range can go from 78 to 108 grams. In th batch of Kokutaku Hero Special rackets their was a range from 79 to 97 grams. The reason I did not select the 78 gram one was because the lines were not as straight and pointing in the same direction as the one I got that is 81 grams. Overall 2 or 3 grams really does not make that big of a difference, but anything over 5 usually makes a difference. So in selecting a 10mm J-pen whether it is Kokutaku or Darker, try to find one that 1.) has really straight lines and the lines are densely packed together and 2.) try not to get one that is too heavy. I truthfully like Kokutaku J-pens a little more, but I also have a Darker Speed 90 and think that it is an excellent racket also. So depending on your budget for 10mm Kiso Hinoki J-pens, you can go with either Darker or Kokutaku. If you have any more questions please ask because I am more than happy to share what I know.

If 10 mm will have more speed but less control, then it is not for me because I am not that good. If I buy another good quality Kokutaku 9 mm, what do you think the difference will be compared to my Darker Speed 90 with thickness 9 mm?
Perhaps I will try to get one below 80 grams.
At iruiru there is only Super Cho Tokusen Bishu No.1D100 with thickness 9 mm, price Yen.9.600,- which is actually cheaper than Darker Speed 90 which costs Yen.10.400,- (9 mm thick). Is this the new type you are referring (maybe not because it is much cheaper)?
The more I ask, the more I am getting confused.

Maybe I should ask iruiru to contact Kokutaku for the Super Cho 1D100 Kiso Hinoki in 9 mm. Thank you for your fast reply and your patience with me.

Hi Malvin
How about the quality of Juic 1 ply kisohinoki blade compare to Kokutaku or Darker? (Only Juic is available here in Thailand).
best regards,

I'm now using Juic Kisohinoki shakehand blade for about 4 weeks.My Juic weight about 88 gram. I love to play 1 ply blade because I would like to have one when I was teenager but I don't have enough money to buy it.In that time there were only 2 brand that had 1 ply blade , one was Nittaku and the other was YSP.But now Nittaku are not produce a 1 ply shakehand blade and YSP brand is no longer exist. When I decided to buy new blade I only find that Juic and Galaxy have 1 ply blade.Quite sad to know Kokutaku and Darker too late.
Now I'm interested in buying another carbon blade.In fact I plan to buy Bty Timo Boll Spirit but Malvin recommend Kokutaku Laser Carbon. Could you please write a minireview?

Thank you Malvin!
I've already ordered Laser Carbon from iruiru.com . I plan to use Mark Vxs and Stiga inova ultralight on it.
About 1 ply hinoki of Darker Tanpan and Juic , the picture (esp. on handle) are almost identical . I'm afraid that I'll have 2 identical blade if I buy Darker Tanpan in future.

The Juic picture - www.juic.co.jp/product/racket/kisohinoki.html

Good choice Adib, Darker is more comfortable to hold than Cypress (I have both).

Hello Adib,

The difference between Cypress and Bty Senkoh 95 is that the Senkoh 95 is 9.5mm and the Kiso Hinoki is actually not that soft at all. The kiso hinoki quality for the Senkoh 95 is actally not that good, but definately not the worst I have seen. Bty Cypress is 9mm and the quality of the blade is much better than Senkoh 95. But for the money and quality go with Kokutaku, Nittaku, or Darker for 1 ply Kiso Hinoki blades. I hope this information is helpful.

Malvin