Chronology development of Hiba arbor-vitae (Thujopsis dolabrata var. hondae) and dating of timbers from an old building

Abstract

Two site chronologies of the ring widths of Hiba arbor-vitae (Thujopsis dolabrata var. hondae) were developed for the northern-most part of Honshu Island, Japan (AOTK: 1715-2001, AOSO: 1753-2000). These are highly coherent, satisfactorily indicating high values of expressed population signal and mean correlation between trees. The two series were merged into a single composite chronology, spanning a period of 287 years from 1715 to 2001, because they correlated significantly with each other. The developed chronology is the first quality-controlled tree-ring chronology for this region extending back to the eighteenth century. Using the master chronologies, we successfully crossdated three historical timbers from an old building near the sampling sites. The tree-ring dates strongly supported the documented construction date of the building. It is revealed that Hiba arbor-vitae has sufficient potential to contribute to future dendrochronological study in this region by extending the chronologies back into the past.