Today Kokufu 10 opens and so does the Green Club. Peter Tea flew in last night and met us in the lobby of the Astil at 7:45 and we all headed over to the JR Train Station for our morning coffee. The Green Club opened at 9am and we arrive at 9:01 and there were already people making the rounds through the three floors and the parking lot full of tables loaded with trees, pots, stands, suiseki, books, tools, etc.
We stopped at two tables loaded with suiseki and began to take our time looking at the various stones for sale.
First table of suiseki we stopped to review
I picked up a nice stone and turned it over to see that its diaza was carved by Koji Suzuki. When I made that comment, the owner said that Koji was standing behind us. To our surprise he was. So he introduced us to him and he recognized both Jeff and my name as we have had numerous diazas made by him through Yoshi as an intermediary. Of course we asked for a photo.
Jeff, Mary, Mr. Suzuki and Sam
So we continued to look at suiseki located on all three floors and frankly there were so many it took several trips to each table to actually take in everything that was being offered as they were tucked away almost everywhere.
More suiseki
We had already purchased a very well known doha stone when we ran across this mountain range so we had to pass.
Mountain range
At ¥95,000 this seemed to be a very good price for this stone. We found with most dealers they were willing to negotiate on price so my guess this suiseki could be picked up for at least 10,000 yen less. 2/19/20 – Correction. This stone was ¥950,000 or $9,500.
Shinji Suzuki's trees and stones
We had a short visit with Shinji Suzuki. He had some incredible trees for sale along with suiseki and antique pots. Next to him was a dealer in very high quality pots and stands. I immediately noticed two Tofukuji pots one in the antique dealer’s area and one in Shinji Suzuki’s sales area.
Tofukuji pot for sale at Shinji Suzuki's booth
Tofukuji in a beautiful green glaze
I have only seen this use of glaze color in two of Tofukuji’s pots. Both are spectacular in depth of color and his use of both green, blue and muted white. We didn’t ask the price of this pot, but one can assume it was above $10,000 U.S.
We took many, many more photos but it is 10pm and we have a train to catch to Kyoto early tomorrow morning. So let me close with this white pine on a stone.
White Pine on a slab
When KJ and I were walking outdoors we were taken back by the beauty of this large white pine on a slab. It is hard to tell if this is a single tree with many trunks or many trees tied together. We think it is one tree with many trunks but regardless it is quite beautiful.
Well just one day of the show and the Green Club this week for us and now we are off to Kyoto. We will be there five days and then back to Tokyo on the 15th. More tomorrow night.
Sam & KJ's Suiseki Blog (水石) 
Congratulations on a beautiful site…… I wonder if you would care to exchange ‘links’
Cheers, Dan Barton
Morning Dan I would be happy to do so. Is this your link: http://danbartonbonsaipots.wordpress.com/
Also you can email me at samedge at pacbell dot net.
Hi Sam,
Regarding the first Tofukuji pot…there is a similar one on page 108 of the book, but the green glaze is far more transparent and thin. What do you think accounts for this difference?
Thanks,
Tony
Tony it is simply lighting. The area at the Green Club has fluorescent lighting and therefore the glaze on this pot looks much heavier.
A good eye you have!
Sam