She is known simply as “Hideko” — no last name required.
For over four decades, Hideko Metaxas has been the quiet heartbeat of Japanese traditional arts in North America. A charter member of the San Francisco Suiseki Kai since its founding in 1981, she went on to become one of the most beloved teachers of bonsai, suiseki, ikebana, and tokonoma display in the country.
She has:
• Served as President of the Golden State Bonsai Federation (1990–91), where she helped establish two of California’s landmark bonsai collections — at the Huntington and at Lake Merritt — and launched an apprenticeship program sending American artists to train in Japan
• Earned the highest diploma (Saikoshoku) in Ikenobo Ikebana, leading the Northern California chapter across four separate terms
• Co-written one of the earliest and most influential English-language texts on suiseki, “Introducing Suiseki” (1983)
• Received Japan’s Green and White Award in 2005 for a lifetime spent building understanding between Japan and California
But ask anyone who has actually sat with her — beside a stone held gently in her hands, in front of a tokonoma she’s just arranged — and the awards fade next to her real gift: her ability to turn a display into a story, a stone into a season, a stranger into someone who believes, for the first time, that this art is for them, too.
Now in her mid-90s, her wonder hasn’t dimmed. This book is a tribute to the woman who taught us how to look more closely at the world — told through her own history, her art, and the memories of the many lives she’s touched.
If you know Hideko, these pages will make you smile. If you don’t yet know her, we hope they make you wish you did.
Suiseki Stories — What if a single stone could hold a mountain, a memory, or a glimpse of the universe itself?
Suiseki Stories is a unique and deeply personal collection of reflections from artists, collectors, and contemplatives from all over the world who have been shaped by the quiet beauty of suiseki—the Japanese art of viewing stones that evoke natural scenes or forms.
It is an art form both humble and profound—one in which a stone can suggest not only a landscape or a living being, but also evoke a world beyond the visible, inviting moments of deep stillness, imagination, and connection.
In this book, we do not aim to define suiseki for the world—nor could we. We recognize that suiseki, born of Japanese aesthetics, holds meanings and subtleties that are not universally agreed upon or easily understood outside its native context. Instead, Suiseki Stories offers something simpler and perhaps more powerful: a chorus of individual voices, each sharing their own experience of stones that moved them, changed them, or called them to reflect more deeply on life.
With 195 pages of striking photographs and intimate stories from across the globe, Suiseki Stories reveals how this ancient practice lives today—not as a fixed tradition, but as a personal and evolving journey.
Ideal for:
Suiseki, stone appreciation, and bonsai enthusiasts
Lovers of Japanese aesthetics, wabi-sabi, and contemplative arts
Readers drawn to the intersection of nature, memory, and meaning
Anyone who has ever found wonder in an ordinary stone
Let these stories inspire your own!
To purchase the hardcover edition of the book, click here!
Please review our latest sale catalog for a number of very nice suiseki from Japan and the USA. This first version of the catalog contains items from Paul. Sam will update the catalog in a few weeks with a number of high quality accent and bonsai pots.
If you have any questions, you may reach out to either of us. Conditions of sale are outlined in the catalog, so please review them. The information on each stone should provide river where known, size and other details such as daiza and or kiri-bako if included.
Stones are sold as first come, first served. It is possible some stones may be under negotiation when you inquire. If so, a priority list will be created based on the date and time of your inquiry. It is hoped you will enjoy seeing these fine stones regardless of your interest in purchasing any of them.
Best,
Sam and Paul
P.S. A number of stones have sold already, so check in with us on availability.
I am happy to announce a group of suiseki by Mas Nakajima are available for purchase. The current catalog is available here: Mas NakajimaSuiseki Sale .
#269
This catalog of stones for sale will be updated as items are sold, and additional stones will be added over time. A few suiseki with bases made by others are also included.
Please make note of the following information:
Some of the stones for sale are large and heavy, and thus the buyer will need to work with Janet to arrange for someone to pick up the stone (and if necessary, box and ship it to you).
For smaller stones Janet will box and ship them. The shipping costs will be included in the payment due.
Payment is by Paypal “friends and family”. Janet will ship the suiseki to you after payment is received.
It might take some time for her to get it done, depending on circumstances. But she promises she will be in regular communication!
Even if the perfect stone for you is not in this list, I hope you enjoy viewing them. Thank you for your consideration and enjoy! You can find contact information for Janet here: https://suisekiart.com/janet-roth/
If you have any questions, also feel free to contact me.
I’m happy to announce another group of Mas Nakajima’s suiseki are available for purchase. Thirty-one stones have been posted representing some of Mas’ finest collecting and daiza making.
Please take note, some of these stones are quite large and heavy. It is important to take notice that some will require you to work with Janet on finding someone to box and ship the stone. For smaller stones, Janet can manage these for you.Due to the volume of sales and the current Covid-19 environment, it may take a number of weeks before your purchase can be shipped. But I assure you the wait time is less than you going up to the Eel River, finding a stone, letting it develop it’s patina and then making a daiza for it!
Many of these fine suiseki are going to go quickly…just a warning. In the event that the perfect stone for you is not in this list, there will be future sales. Thank you for your consideration and enjoy viewing them on her website.
KJ and I have discussed for a while if we should sell a part of our collection of stones, stand and the like. After much discussion, a site was built to do just that.
The commerce website contains some fine suiseki from Japan and viewing stones from the United States and China. A number of bonsai pots, dobans and suibans are available; primarily sourced from Japan but also elsewhere.
Stands, which seem to be hard to find these days, are also available in different shapes and sizes; most are from Japan and were imported many years ago.
Check out the bronze given to us from Mr. Saburo Kato’s family shortly after his death. This would be a wonderful display piece with either a stone or tree.
Bronze Temple from the Saburo Sato Collection
There are also a number of books; primarily bonsai books with a few suiseki catalogs. Lastly, there are about 60 deep sky photos that can be printed from ~12 inches to as large as 60 inches. If you have interest in the photos, just email us and we can discuss sizes and finishes. Our home as M42, the Great Orion Nebula, hanging above our fireplace. It was printed 52-inches square on canvas.
M42 – The Great Nebula in the Constellation of Orion
We attempt to ship within 24 hours of an order. International orders can not be competed directly from the website. Just email us with the SKU number and we can make arrangements to ship things to you.
Feel free to browse and we thank you for doing so!
Lastly, if you would like for us to help you sell something similar to what we have listed, just reach out to us and we can discuss…
Before I begin, please take a few minutes to read this true story as documented in the Book The Element – How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything by Sir Ken Robinson (c) 2009.
The Element
“Gillian was only eight years old, but her future was already at risk. Her schoolwork was a disaster, at least as far as her teachers were concerned. She turned in assignments late, her handwriting was terrible, and she tested poorly. Not only that, she was a disruption to the entire class, one minute fidgeting noisily, the next staring out the window, forcing the teacher to stop the class to pull Gillian’s attention back, and the next doing something to disturb the other children around her. Gillian wasn’t particularly concerned about any of this—she was used to being corrected by authority figures and really didn’t see herself as a difficult child—but the school was very concerned. This came to a head when the school wrote to her parents.
Gillian Lynne with her mother, Barbara, in 1932
The school thought that Gillian had a learning disorder of
some sort and that it might be more appropriate for her to be in a school for
children with special needs. All of this took place in the 1930s I think now
they’d say she had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and they’d put her
on Ritalin or something similar. But the
ADHD epidemic hadn’t been invented at the time. It wasn’t an available condition.
People didn’t know they could have that and had to get by without it.
Gillian’s parents received the letter from the school with
great concern and sprang to action.
Gillian’s mother put her daughter in her best dress and shoes, tied her
hair in ponytails, and took her to a psychologist for assessment, fearing the
worst.
Gillian told me that she remembers being invited into a
large oak-paneled room with leather-bound books on the shelves. Standing in the
room next to a large desk was an imposing man in a tweed jacket. He took Gillian to the far end of the room
and sat her down on a huge leather sofa. Gillian’s feet didn’t quite touch the floor,
and the setting made her wary. Nervous about the impression she would make, she
sat on her hands so that she wouldn’t fidget.
The psychologist went back to his desk, and for the next
twenty minutes, he asked Gillian’s mother about the difficulties Gillian was
having at school and the problems the school said she was causing. While he didn’t direct any of his questions
at Gillian, he watched her carefully the entire time. This made Gillian extremely uneasy and
confused. Even at this tender age, she knew that this man would have a significant
role in her life. She knew what it meant
to attend a “special school,” and she didn’t want anything to do with that. She
genuinely didn’t feel that she had any real problems, but everyone else seemed
to believe she did. Given the way her mother
answered the questions, it was possible that even she felt this way.
Maybe, Gillian thought, they were right.
Eventually, Gillian’s mother and the psychologist stopped
talking. The man rose from his desk, walked to the sofa, and sat next to the little
girl.
“Gillian, you’ve been very patient, and I thank you for
that,” he said. “But I’m afraid you’ll have to be patient for a little
longer. I need to speak to your mother privately
now. We’re going to go out of the room for a few minutes. Don’t worry; we won’t
be very long.
Gillian nodded apprehensively, and the two adults left her
sitting there on her own. But as he was leaving the room, the psychologist leaned
across his desk and turned on the radio.
As soon as they were in the corridor outside the room, the
doctor said to Gillian’s mother, “Just stand her for a moment, and watch what
she does.” There was a window into the room and they stood to one side of it,
where Gillian couldn’t see them. Nearly immediately, Gillian was on her feet,
moving around the room to the music. The
two adults stood watching quietly for a few minutes, transfixed by the girl’s
grace. Anyone would have noticed there
was something natural—event primal—about Gillian’s movements. Just as they would have surely caught
the expression of utter pleasure on her face.
At last, the psychologist turned to Gillian’s mother and
said, “You know, Mrs. Lynne, Gillian isn’t sick. She’s a dancer. Take her to a
dance school.”
I asked Gillian what happened then. She said her mother did exactly what the
psychologist suggested. “I can’t tell
you how wonderful it was,” she told me. “I walked into this room, and it was
full of people like me. People who couldn’t sit still. People
who had to move to think.”
She started going to dance school every week, and she
practiced at home every day. Eventually,
she auditioned for the Royal Ballet School in London, and they accepted
her. She went on to join the Royal Ballet
Company itself, becoming a soloist and performing all over the world. When that
part of her career ended, she formed her own musical theater company and
produced a series of highly successful shows in London and New York.
Eventually, she met Andrew Lloyd Webber and created with him some of the most
successful musical theater productions in history, including Cats and The Phantom of the Opera.
Little Gillian, the girl with the high-risk future, became known to the world as Gillian Lynne, one of the most accomplished choreographers of our time, someone who has brought pleasure to millions and earned millions of dollars. This happened because someone looked deep into her eyes—someone who had seen children like her before and knew how to read the signs. Someone else might have put her on medication and told her to calm down. But Gillian wasn’t a problem child. She didn’t need to go away to a special school.”
She just needed to be who she really was.”
A Few Thoughts
You might ask, what has this to do in a blog focusing on suiseki? A good question, so let me spend a few moments explaining why.
I’ve been busy at work for more than two years researching how to “view” suiseki stones. It has been a passion that has taken a great deal of my free time. I have read hundreds of papers, research articles, and books on aesthetic with a special focus on Japanese aesthetic. Through this process a discovery was made, for me at least, that there is no true universal definition of aesthetic between cultures and often even between similar groups of people.
Most aesthetics focus on the concept of beauty, however, even in this definition beauty can be defined in so many ways. What I have discovered is that most aestheticians link beauty with truth. Rising early to watch the sun break brilliantly across distant mountain tops, standing in the late afternoon on the rocky shores of the ocean seeing and hearing the waves break below, or watching the inherent beauty in a small child asleep and at peace. There is not only beauty but real truth in these scenes.
At some future point, it is my hope that all of this research will be gathered and focused into a book that will help its readers to begin to define their own aesthetic regardless of the artistic outlet be it stones, painting, or something.
Returning to the story of Gillian, one can only imagine the loss to the world had the doctor not intervened to declare there was nothing wrong with Gillian – she is just a dancer. How many artist, dancers, writers, photographers, comedians have been lost to the world simply because they were viewed as different? And tragically so, treated as if they were broken.
Let’s juxtapose for a moment ourselves into the world of suiseki for a moment. How often have we stood before a beautiful stone asking someone what they see and before they can even respond we admonish them in what we see in it. If you take note, you might see a small frown appear on the other person’s face?
How often do we see people courageously describe what they see in the stone for the “expert” to immediately bark at them that what they are seeing is wrong that it is not “A” but their viewpoint “B.” How many new participants in our art form have we driven away because we haven’t allowed them to participate and for them to have an opportunity to express what they see!
It reminds me of when Masahiko Kimura created this now famous bonsai.
Upon its initial release, this was frowned upon by the bonsai world. It wasn’t bonsai; it didn’t follow the accepted practices of the time. Surely there were other forest plantings, but they were in a pot, or slab, that was horizontal to the ground. This design broke the conventional rules!
Over time it became recognized as a master work of design. Expressive, beautiful and now often mimicked by others.
Anytime there is a major change in an art style such as realism to impressionism the holders of the standard fight to maintain that hold and thus feel inclined to reject the new.
I caution each of us to allow others to see what they see. Attempt to understand what they are expressing through either their display or their interpretations. As relayed in the earlier story: “…But Gillian wasn’t a problem child. She didn’t need to go away to a special school. She just needed to be who she really was.”
In the same way, who knows, the very person who seems to be breaking the rules today may very well be creating a new form of art tomorrow.
“Su Shi (simplified Chinese: 苏轼; traditional Chinese: 蘇軾) (8 January 1037 – 24 August 1101), courtesy name Zizhan, (Chinese: 子瞻), art name Dongpo, was a Chinese writer, poet, painter, calligrapher, pharmacologist, gastronome, and a statesman of the Song dynasty.”
Portrait of Su Dongpo by Zhao Mengfu
Su Shi was born into a literary family in 1037. At the age of 19 he passed the highest-level civil service examinations with flying colors, and was marked out as a rising star within the world of officialdom. His lucid, eloquent essays greatly impressed Emperor Renzong (1010-1063) and by the time the young Emperor Shenzong (1048-1085) ascended to the throne in 1067, Su Shi was a respected figure among scholar-officials at court.
‘During the Song dynasty, a period of unsurpassed refinement in the arts in China, Su Shi had a brilliant and staggeringly varied career,’ explains art critic Alastair Sooke. A poet, politician, writer, calligrapher, painter and aesthetic theorist, Su Shi was the pre-eminent scholar of the Song dynasty. ‘He was so prolific in so many different fields that it is very tempting to think of him as a proto-Renaissance man,’ says Sooke, ‘even though he was born four centuries before Leonardo.’
“Su Shi was exiled to provincial Huangzhou, where he lived in relative poverty. He built a farm in the foothills of what became known as the Eastern Slope (Dongpo), and began to call himself Master of the Eastern Slope (Su Dongpo). For all the hardships he experienced in exile, it was during this period that he produced some of his most well-known verses.”
One of 12 leaves from the album Stories of Su Dongpo by Zou Yigui (1686-1772), showing Su Shi when he was 66 years old. Sold for HK$437,500 on 28 May 2012 at Christie’s in Hong Kong
“Today, Su Shi is recognized as one of the eight great prose masters of the Tang and Song, and one of the four Song masters of calligraphy. His poems, including At Red Cliff, Cherishing the Past and Prelude to the Water Melody, have become embedded in Chinese culture, inspiring landscape paintings and poetic illustrations throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties. His calligraphy has been copied, studied and collected for centuries.
Note: The movie Red Cliff by Director Johnathan Woo is in our top 10 movies of all time. It is a two-part, four and one-half hours film. Everything about this film is stellar. From the story-line, casting, music and production. We cannot more highly recommend this film. Click here if you want to purchase a copy. Be sure to purchase the International version as the US version, as seen on Netflix, is a cut down 2 hour version that ruins the film frankly.
Su Shi’s ideas on what it was to create an image, and the relationship of the image to the internal psychology of the painter, were revolutionary, and can be seen as a launchpad for painting as a non-representational, psychologically driven process. It was Su Shi who first began to explore concepts of artistic practice as the outward expression of the artist’s interior experience.”
“Similarly revolutionary was Su Shi’s approach to brushwork. Other contemporary painters pursued a representational style that involved great detail and strong delineation. But Su Shi’s brushwork is impressionistic and spare. Writing on the principles by which to judge the highest class of painting, Su Shi once declared, ‘If one discusses painting in terms of formal likeness, one is no different from a child.’ For him, there was painting in poetry and poetry in painting.”
‘There is a saying in Chinese art history that “ink has five colors”,’ says Zhou. ‘Ink has all that you need to depict the external world and to express yourself and whatever your artistic impulses have to say. Wood and Rock is a true embodiment of the artist’s state of mind at the time, which you can see so palpably in the painting.’
Note: Similarly, English painter Lawerence Stephen Lowry, born in 1887, used only a five color pallet for his paintings. His use of ivory black, vermilion, Prussian blue, yellow ochre and flake white.
Su Shi (1037-1101), Wood and Rock. Handscroll, ink on paper. Painting: 26.3 x 50 cm (10⅜ x 19¾ in); Overall with mounting: 27.2 x 543 cm
“Wood and Rock is inscribed with the poetry of Su Shi’s friend Mi Fu (1051-1107), which was probably added at a later date. Like Su Shi, Mi Fu was a celebrated poet, calligrapher, painter and statesman. For Su Shi, expressing affinity through the giving and exchanging of painting and verse in the form of calligraphy was a means of building networks of cultural capital.
The ink traces on this scroll offer insights into abstracted ideas of how Su Shi and Mi Fu thought and conceived of art, but also illuminate how these exceptional men of the 11th century understood each other. They are, therefore, tangible representations of the relationships between cultural giants of the distant past.
Mi Fu’s verse on the scroll interprets his friend’s painting of a withered tree as an intimate expression of oneself at an old age. The pathos in Mi Fu’s lament certainly resonates with what is known of Su Shi’s experiences in exile. In Mi Fu’s other writings, he speaks of how Su Shi condensed his emotions in the turns of his brush and the construction of his rocks and trees.”
Inset of the scroll entitled Wood and Rock
This 1,000 year old scroll was recently auctioned at Christie’s in Hong Kong. It sold for HK$ 463,600,000 or approximately $59 million USD.
Kokan Shiren (虎関師錬), 1278–1347), Japanese Rinzai Zen patriarch and celebrated poet in Chinese, was the son of an officer of the palace guard and a mother of the aristocratic Minamoto clan. Kokan studied under the celebrated Chinese monk Yishan Yining. Their relationship can be regarded as the beginning of the golden age of the Literature of the Five Mountains in Japan. He studied calligraphy under an additional Chinese master Huang Shangu. A portrait of Kokan Shiren is in the Kaizoin of the Tōfuku-ji Temple in Kyoto, Japan.
The Japanese monk Kokan Shiren dated 1343, painted by Wang Zhiweng.
Our interest in Kokan is for the similarities that many of us experience today when sharing our stones (suiseki) with friends. His experience was recorded in his essay entitled Rhymeprose on a Miniature Landscape Garden. Take a few moments to read a portion of his essay and see how well it resonates with your own experiences.
What I liked to do for fun when I was a child was to gather up sacks of stones and pile them on a table near the window high and free. When I reached middle age, I felt ashamed of doing this and so I stopped, becoming like any other ordinary person, obtuse like a brick. Finally, I have reached decrepit old age, and I particularly dislike the sound of children’s games in the summer. So I had the children gather up stones in the corner of the wall. I brushed them off and washed them, preparing a green celadon tray with white sand on the bottom. The result was poetry that would lighten your heart. The landscape lent a coolness to the air and dispelled the heart.
A visitor saw it and exclaimed, “Okay, okay, but it seems a little bald, doesn’t it?”
I responded, “You see a pile of stones and fail to see the mountains. The marvelous thing about miniature landscape gardens is that they are imitations of mountains and streams. The base is made to look flowing waves and the cliffs are made to seem covered with vegetation. Sometimes you can see miniature gnarled pine or knobby plum. You might see unusual blossoms or strange new shoots from their trimmed branches. Of course you will discover the utter vexation of your creations withering and wilting due to carelessness of slow watering and tending. If you fail to exert yourself, then you will simply fail to fashion a magnificent mountain and a smaller world among the smaller mounds and hills.
“Years ago I climbed to the top of Mt. Fuji. The climb took three days. For two days I passed through areas of great trees and forests, but on the third morning there wasn’t a blade of grass to be seen! At that point there were only great boulder-like cliffs and purplish-red stones. It was like this for a number of miles until I reached the peak itself. Of course Mt. Fuji is not unique in this respect as all peaks are without vegetation. People who climb mountains do not dislike the so-called baldness; rather, the love the sense of height.
“These stones then, just a number of inches tall, and this tray roughly a foot across, they are nothing short of a mountainous island rising from the sea! Jade-green peaks penetrate the clouds and are encircled by them. A blue-green barrier, immersed in water, is standing straight up. There are caves as if carved in the cliff sides to hide saints and immortals. Jetties and spits flat enough and long enough for fishermen. The paths and roads are narrow and confined, yet woodcutters can pass along them. There are lagoons deep and dark enough to hide dragons.
“So is it not fitting that I guard against weeds, carefully watching and laboring over the thing, taking delight in its total subtlety? Do you dislike the baldness of the small mounds and hills? Am I oblivious to the bareness of just the peak? I sometimes pick a flowering branch and place it in a peak or in a ravine. The alternations of plant life, their blooming in the morning and fading in the evening, are the splendor of the four seasons with their countless transformations and myriad changes! So therefore I say that it doesn’t have to be bare, and it does not have to be lush.
“Another thing, do you think this miniature landscape is big? Do you think it is small? I will blow on the water and raise up billows from the four seas. I will water the peak and send down a torrent from the ninth heaven! The person who waters the stones sets the cosmos in order. The one who changes the water turns the whole sea upside down. Those are the changes in nature which attain a oneness in my mind. Anyway, the relative size of things is an uncertain business. Why, there is a vast plain on a fly’s eyelash and whole nations in a snail’s horn, a Chinese philosopher has told us. Well what do you think?”
My visitor got up from his seat and made his excuses. He saw that these stones purified my senses and purified my intellect. He realized that events are really not what they seemed and yet they enriched me. I told him that he only understood what he perceived with his own eyes and did not understand my point of view at all. I asked if he wouldn’t like to sit for a while longer and study the matter afresh. He said he would, but there were no waves for him. He said nothing more and I was silent. After a while my visitor left without another word.
— Saihokushu, ch. 1, pp. 1–2.
An Example of a Miniature Landscape Garden
Kasuga gongen genki, The Miraculous Tales of the Deities of the Kasaga Shrine
The Kasuga gongen genki by court painter Takashina Takakane in 1309 is one of the earliest examples of the usage of stones and trees together to create contemplative art. As seen from the following black and white insert from this painting.
An close-up of the miniature garden in the painting Kasuga gongen genki
We can see what appears to be a pine, a deciduous flowering tree and stones along with another stone in a pot above and to its right. Note as well the handles on this portable wooden tray, thus allowing it to be moved about perhaps to be seen better from inside the home.
During this period Kokan is describing his experiences in creating these miniature landscape gardens and what his viewing experience does for him personally. It becomes clear very quickly that Kokan and his friend see his display very differently.
A visitor saw it and exclaimed, “Okay, okay, but it seems a little bald, doesn’t it?”
His friend only saw a pile of stones with an admonition that it “seems a little bald.” Oh, the times I have shown a stone display to a friend, or acquaintance, to hear the reply “oh, you collect rocks?”
Kokan replies to his friend:
I responded, “You see a pile of stones and fail to see the mountains….”
In a simplistic way, we could stop the evaluation of their respective viewpoints now. One sees a pile of stones the other a majestic mountain that he continues to describe in vivid detail. One seems to have imagination the other none.
Kokan is describing the scene using his imagination and memories from prior experiences in nature while his friend’s imagination seems non-existent. His friend, like ours, might at this point have at least engaged Kokan to attempt to gain a better appreciation of what Kokan was attempting to create and experience through this miniature landscape garden and accompanying stones; as often our hope is that our visitors might do the same. Yet, Kokan’s friend listens, perhaps politely, and at the end of Kokan’s vivid description of what he sees Kokan asks “Well what do you think?”
At this point one hopes for some engagement, some interest to be shown in this display. One might assume Kokan was also waiting in hopes of some appreciation as well. Yet, he like us, was only met with only disappointment.
“My visitor got up from his seat and made his excuses. He saw that these stones purified my senses and purified my intellect. He realized that events are really not what they seemed and yet they enriched me. I told him that he only understood what he perceived with his own eyes and did not understand my point of view at all. I asked if he wouldn’t like to sit for a while longer and study the matter afresh. He said he would, but there were no waves for him. He said nothing more and I was silent. After a while my visitor left without another word.”
So his friend made his excuses, said nothing more and soon thereafter he left without another word. Can you feel Kokan’s disappointment? Don’t you imagine Kokan was hoping that his sharing of the enrichment he was receiving from this scene could also be enjoyed by his friend. The offer for discussion, to engage in conversation would have allowed his friend to at least gain a better insight into this garden display, but as importantly into Kokan himself. What a missed opportunity.
Now before we get all in a huff and declare that his friend seems not to be a friend at all, if we allow ourselves to become introspective might we ourselves be that friend? How easy it is for us to wax poetic about our stone displays, but yet to encounter someone else’s, especially if it differs from our aesthetic, how often do we see “it as a little bald” and then we sit, or stand, quietly and soon leave without another word with the exception of perhaps the ubiquitous “good-bye.” Even worse today, those without understanding often begin to lecture us on why our display is done incorrectly; a topic for another day.
Might we learn from Kokan’s essay to seek to understand what at first seems a little bald? Should we not at least put in a some effort, if nothing more to support our friend and/or companion? I find that often when it comes to beauty, we are quick to judge and slow to contemplate. In less than a moment, we process what we see, attempt to categorize it, apply a set of rules that we believe in and then if it doesn’t resonate with us, we simply dismiss it and we are done.
All of us have much to learn from Kokan’s essay. Perhaps we have much to learn from this quote within the essay to Kokan’s friend:
“If you fail to exert yourself, then you will simply fail to fashion a magnificent mountain and a smaller world among the smaller mounds and hills.”
Let’s not fail at seeing and experiencing the magnificence of our imagination as we gaze upon ours and others stone displays. Let’s be willing to exert ourselves!
This is the third part of this story and comprises the final section. Let us continue with Kakuzō’s writing on the tea ceremony.
“The tea-master, Kobori-Enshiu, himself a daimyo, has left to us these memorable words: “Approach a great painting as thou wouldst approach a great prince.” In order to understand a masterpiece, you must lay yourself low before it and await with bated breath its least utterance. An eminent Sung critic once made a charming confession. Said he: “In my young days I praised the master whose pictures I liked, but as my judgment matured I praised myself for liking what the masters had chosen to have me like.”
“It is to be deplored that so few of us really take pains to study the moods of masters. In our stubborn ignorance we refuse to render them this simple courtesy, and thus often miss the rich repast of beauty spread before our very eyes. A master has always something to offer, while we go hungry solely because of our own lack of appreciation.”
This so reminds me of a story that my good friend Mas Nakajima relayed to me in one of our study sessions. Mas’ teacher, Mr. Hirotsu, spent many afternoons discussing suiseki with him. On one occasion he gifted him with a stone.
Gift to Masahiro Nakajima from his teacher Mr. Hirotsu; photo used with permission. An Eel River stone on a painted fine base; 4.5″ x 3.5″ x 4″
Mas was in his mid-30s and had admired a number of Mr. Hirotsu’s suiseki. When he was gifted with the stone above, Mas was quite unhappy. He had hoped to be gifted with a more traditional stone which would show the beauty of a landscape.
As he told this story a large smile came across Mas’ face as he continued to describe to me that his appreciation for this stone has grown over the years as he realized that Mr. Hirotsu was teaching him that the spirit of Zen in the stone can far outweigh the style of the stone. Mas continued to describe the stone in attributes of it being quiet, humble and very modest.
If you would like to acquire this interview of Mas and his wife Janet, it can be found in the magazine Works and Conversations, Number 32, entitled Living on Earth. You can obtain a copy by emailing rew1428@gmail.com. If you would like to read this article online – please click here.
Janet and Mas; December 4, 2016
As Mas was my mentor, I took this story to heart as I vividly recall times he would look at a stone that I had found and remark that is was good suiseki. I struggled to see it frankly, and that was quite exasperating. The best example of this occurred on a collecting trip with him and his wife Janet to a lake in Northern CA known for its beautiful Jasper stones. It was coincidentally my birthday and I very much looked forward to this trip as it was just the three of us that day; to have time alone with your mentor is to be treasured.
Mas and Sam studying a stone on the Trinity River in 2013.
After an early morning of collecting, I decided to take a long walk to an area where we rarely found anything approaching a stone to take home. During my walk westward along the lake, I happened to notice a stone that appeared to have a pool in it. I picked up the stone to note that it has no evidence of Jasper whatsoever, what I was focusing on collecting, but the pool was interesting. The issue was that the stone was very dark gray, it has bumps or nodules on both the front and back and the pool was not very wide but very deep in the stone. I must admit that I more than once thought about putting it back down on the ground as it wasn’t full of color nor was the pool what I thought it should be for a pool stone. However, if I had learned anything it was when in doubt put the stone in my backpack and show it to Mas during lunch. After our lunch at the top of the largest hill overlooking the lake, I summoned sufficient courage to take the stone out and show it to Mas. He became very quiet…
I have to admit that quietness was unsettling. I had experienced enough times bringing stones to Mas in my early days of collecting for him to politely, but firmly, inform me that the stone wasn’t good suiseki, thus my fear was am I wasting his time once again? I’m sure all students standing before their mentors have had similar encounters.
Mas continued to study the stone and he finally simply said “I will trade all the stones I have found today for this stone.” Now mind you, he had collected more than 20 stones that morning. I’m not sure what emotion swept through me more – one of I must have found a spectacular stone or two what am I not seeing! I thanked Mas and asked for him to describe what he saw. He then took me through an observation of the stone and how he saw in it an ancient mid-1700s tea cup. He smiled at me and said that I had found my meiseki; the designation for a very rare stone due to their outstanding qualities and beauty. My heart soared with joy!
So at the Sung critic stated “In my young days I praised the master whose pictures I liked, but as my judgment matured I praised myself for liking what the masters had chosen to have me like.” I would like to think I’m on that same journey of liking what my master (Mas) had chosen for me to like.
Let’s continue…
“We must remember, however, that art is of value only to the extent that it speaks to us. It might be universal language if we ourselves were universal in our sympathies. Our finite nature, the power of tradition and conventionality, as well as our hereditary instincts, restrict the scope of our capacity for artistic enjoyment…It is much to be regretted that so much of the apparent enthusiasm for art at the present day has no foundation in real feeling. In this democratic age of ours men clamor for what is popularly considered the best, regardless of their feelings. They want the costly, not the refined; the fashionable, not the beautiful. A collector is anxious to acquire specimens to illustrate a period or a school, and forgets that a single masterpiece can teach us more than any number of the mediocre products of a given period or school. We classify too much and enjoy too little. The sacrifice of the aesthetic to the so-called scientific method of exhibition has been the bane of many museums.”
One hundred and ten years later nothing has changed in this regard. I still observe, and have participated myself, in indiscriminate collecting. We seem to enjoy the “hunt” of finding art but yet then spend almost no time being taught by it. In retrospect, I think of the number of inferior stones that I have purchased when I could have aggregated my funds to obtain a specimen where much could be learned. In many ways this is a human normality. When we begin to collect we are unsure of ourselves so we tend to restrict our purchases to smaller transactions. Then as we begin to better understand the art form we expand our collection to include better specimens. Yet, we must be cautious that our collecting isn’t just for collecting sake!
Our displays might also reflect this sentiment as well. Are we better to have fewer displays rather than more? Might this allow more contemplation rather than just seeing?
Again I wish to make clear; I’m not referring to today’s suiseki shows in the US in a denigrating way, not at all. I clearly understand the needs of most clubs to share their member’s stones. I do though think we need to think of suiseki in terms of a real art form worthy of being shown amongst some of the finest paintings and sculptures in our best museums. In this setting, those that are so inclined will have only an opportunity of introduction as well as a few moments to reflect and contemplate these natural forms.
As we close our study of The Book of Tea, perhaps the following this text will resonate with you. It is from the Taoist tale of the Taming of the Harp. The story well illustrates the mystery of art appreciation.
“At the magic touch of the beautiful, the secret chords of our being are awakened, we vibrate and thrill in response to its call. Mind speaks to mind. We listen to the unspoken, we gaze upon the unseen. The master calls forth notes we know not of. Memories long forgotten all come back to us with a new significance. Hopes stifled by fear, yearnings that we dare not recognize, stand forth in new glory. Our mind is the canvas on which the artists lay their color; their pigments are our emotions; their chiaroscuro the light of joy, the shadow of sadness. The masterpiece is of ourselves, as we are of the masterpiece.”
This last paragraph is eloquent and holds great truth. As we think of encountering beauty, be it a painting, a sculpture or a stone, memories are brought back to us – good or bad – and often as stated with a new significance. The work of art, its beauty, and those memories somehow become intertwined and become a part of us and thus we become a part of the masterpiece itself.
In closing…
My mentor and friend Mas Nakajima passed away on September 10, 2018. For many of us and especially for me this is a tremendous and very personal loss. As I struggle today to comprehend the loss of my friend, I can truly say that Mas will never leave my heart. He taught me so much. Many of the things that he taught me I’m only now beginning to understand. I truly miss him. There is a passage in this Book of Tea that I wish to dedicate to my friend Mas.
“To the sympathetic a masterpiece becomes a living reality towards which we feel drawn in bonds to comradeship. The masters are immortal, for their loves and fears live in us over and over again. It is rather the soul than the hand, the man than the technique, which appeals to us—the more human the call the deeper is our response.”
Sam & KJ's Suiseki Blog (水石) 