Yes, I was using boxwood in the sense of boxes, didn't think of it in terms of genus or species types. Boxwood (capital B) is hard.
What I saw was a white wood fairly soft in the Japanese rod boxes. I'm not sure maple or aspen grow in Japan, but maybe they do. I haven't seen ash used, it has a distinctive grain pattern that would be hard to mistake.
Capitalized species was dropped quite a few years ago as proper by virtually all style guides. Boxwood would not be capitalized even when named to the specific...
Japan is actually noted for its red maples which have produced many lace-leaf cultivars... And poplar is a common native Japanese tree. Japan is extremely protective of trees and has the highest forested percentage of any country.
Japanese ash, which they call tamo is not as distinctive as the American ash species, but is commonly found in Japanese musical instruments. It would be easy to mistake in some cases.
