Well today is the last day of our trip – but we had to make time for one more trip to the Green Club. We had seen a small table that we were interested in and hope to make a “last day of the show” offer for it. The table was made by Hongo Noboru and will be focused on in a future post as it is an incredibly beautiful shohin/suiskei table.
We headed over to the bakery in the train station for a quick bite to eat before our walk to the Green Club. They had a sandwich that was very tasty for breakfast and the photo speaks for itself. The art of making a face with the various sandwich components had to be photographed.
Breakfast faces - before we devoured the sandwich
So we got a latte at Starbucks, ate our breakfast and walked the 15 minute walk to the Green Club to find Isino on the 2nd floor.
Yasuhiro Oshima on the 2nd Floor of the Green Club
Yasuhiro Oshima is the vendor we purchased the Harada Houn doban from as well as a Mr. Sugii suiseki during the show. His English was very good and he was extremely helpful in assisting us even with other vendors. I will post on another day a link to his blog where there are some delightful pots, stones and other items.
The following are few photos of the things he had for sale.
Yasuhiro Oshima's Trees, pots and stones
A suiskei we particularly like and hope to buy soon!
Isino-san's Trees, pots and stones
A few more shots at the Green Club. We will do a future post of the many photos we took at the Green Club. If you have never had a chance to visit it you will want to see these photos as this place is just unbelievable in terms of the quality of what you can purchase.
Ueno Green Club
Ueno Green Club
Ueno Green Club
Ueno Green Club
The above photograph was of a suiseki for sale for ¥600,000 Yen or around $6,500. This stone was purchased 14 years ago for ¥800,000. It was one of the first suiseki where I have seen the kiri wood box in another box. This was to protect the outside of the kiri wood box and its inscription. The color on the stone was to me very unique and what the photo doesn’t capture is the almost opalescence of the sheen of the stone. I wish we knew more about it but wanted to include it in the post anyway.
We purchased the stand by Hongo and one more fairly large suiseki before heading downstairs to what would be our last acquisition.
Jeff had seen a suiseki the previous day and we admitted this it was a lovely stone. I tell this story because only through Jeff’s graciousness were we able to purchase this stone. Jeff had decided not to purchase it on this trip but to make arrangements to buy it after we returned to the states. KJ and talked amongst ourselves for quite a long-time and I decided to approach Jeff to let him know how much we liked this stone and was he willing to allow us to attempt to purchase it. Jeff was gracious enough to allow us to do just that and we are very appreciative as this is a lovely stone.
A stone whose box was marked wave
The owner of this stone is a gentleman who we had had dinner with in 2008 on our last trip to Japan. As we discussed this suiseki, he indicated even though the stone was marked as a wave stone that he thought it was a hut stone. KJ and I agree with his viewpoint; however, we can see why one of the original owners of the stone also thought it resembled an ocean wave.
We negotiated for a while on this stone and finally came to an agreeable price. It is certainly a stone that we will appreciate and study for many years to come. Again thanks Jeff!
Well we were done. All we needed to do now was to head back to the hotel, jump in the van we had rented to take us to Narita and fly home. Little did we know that some 12 hours later I would be in the hospital upon our return. But that is a story for another post!
KJ and I hope you have enjoyed our 11 blogs during our trip. It was fun to do and we hope to hear from you. Sam and KJ
Sam & KJ's Suiseki Blog (水石) 
Thanks for all the great blog posts… I was hoping to get to Kokufu this year but time and money did not permit it….
Your blog has been as good a substitute as i could find…
Thanks.
Joe.
Hi Joe. I want to tell you that it was a pleasure to do the posts as our hope was what you expressed in your comment. Having for years heard so much about the show and the Green Club and not being able to go I know what that is like. So our hope was to share our trip with you and others and it makes the approximately 90 minutes we spent everyday getting the photos ready and doing the post very worthwhile. When you head over do the same for us and share with the blogging community your trip and experience as well. Sam and KJ
Sam,
Hope all is well with you being in the hospital 12 hours later. What a way to come back home. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your posts, and with the time difference, had an opportunity to read them early in the morning before going to work. Sounds like you 4 had a great trip, and got in plenty of sightseeing which is wonderful.
As for the last stone in this post, as I scrolled down I had an immediate recognition in my mind of an atomic mushroom cloud. It certainly is a fascinating stone, I’ve never seen one quite so profound. Anyhow, welcome back to the rainy weather, and feel better.
Scott
Hope you’re recuperating well. We’re all waiting for the full story.
Guess we’re not going to be able to circle items in the photos and ask you to buy them for us…
Wow! That looks very much like a stony-iron meteorite! Has anyone tried a magnet on it?
Which stone?
Sorry The stone “A stone whose box was marked wave
“
At first glance it looked like it had fusion crust characteristics.