Today’s post continues to look at various suiteki. Almost all of these being shown are in bronze; however, many in the market are ceramic and this is particularly true of very old Chinese water droppers.
Just check out eBay today and you will see around 140 of them being sold and almost all of them are ceramic. I doubt we would use a ceramic one in our displays as they tend to be a bit too reflective and shiny to us. We like the various animal shapes but we have included a few today of fruit and vegetables.
Part II — Photographs
Water dropper in the shape of a Lion, Kirin (mythological animal) and a Suisei (mythological animal)
Water dropper in the shape of a Swan
Water dropper in the shape of a Long-tailed Cock
Water dropper in the shape of a Horned Owl
Water dropper in the shape of a Quail
Water dropper in the shape of a Lobbed Teapot
Water dropper in the shape of a Young Girl and a Peach
Suiteki, literally water-dropper, is a small container used to hold the water which is added to the inkstone (suzuri 硯) during the grinding of the ink stick. We enjoy them for the works of art they are rather than for their intended purpose when created. Some of the suiteki that we will show can be used within a formal or informal display of suiseki or bonsai. We hope you enjoy our next three posts about these beautiful works of art.
Pouring water from a suiteki.
Ink Stones
Water-droppers may be made of copper, jade and stone, but ceramic are the most popular. Depending on their size and shape, water-droppers may also be termed suichuu 水注, suichuujou 水中丞 (also suijou 水丞), suiu 水盂 or senjo 蟾蜍. More specifically, a suiteki has two small holes for water and air and is designed so that only a few drops of water can fall at one time.
Suichuu are shaped like pitchers and have a pouring spout and a handle. Suiu and suijou are bowl or jar-like, and some have wide mouths, making them popular for use as brush washers hissen 筆洗, while others have small mouths. Senjo, or “toad”, was so named because a toad was believed to hold water in its large belly. Thus many jade toad-shaped water-droppers exist. At first the suiteki was simply a jar or bowl used for holding water, but as interest in the accoutrements of calligraphy grew, water-droppers became more specialized.
Bronze water-droppers in the shapes of fantastic creatures [monsters], ceramic suiu and teapot-shaped suichuu were created in China and found their way to Japan and became popular with the literati of the Edo period. In Japan, suiteki were already used in the Nara period (7th century) when sutra copying flourished. A set from this period made up of a bronze water-dropper, a spoon and a tray used to hold the ink stick are preserved at Houryuuji 法隆寺, Nara.
Since the late Heian period (11th century), a special kind of writing box suzuribako 硯箱, which includes the water-dropper, in addition to the ink stone and other writing tools, became very popular. The water-droppers varied greatly in material, shape and design. Notable, are the elaborately designed ceramic suiteki, including many animal-shaped examples, that were found among old Seto (13c) and Oribe (16th century) wares (see setoyaki 瀬戸焼, oribeyaki 織部焼). Water-droppers of richly colored cloisonne shippou 七宝 also became popular from the 16th century.
Part 1 — Photographs
Water dropper in the shape of a Tiger
Water dropper in the shape of a Rooster
Water dropper in the shape of a Boar
Water dropper in the shape of a Giant Peach and Monkey
Water dropper in the shape of a Horse
Water dropper in the shape of an Ox
Water dropper in the shape of a Water Buffalo
Water dropper in the shape of a Rabbit with Long Ears
Water dropper in the shape of a Deer
Water dropper in the shape of a Camel
Well that is all for today. We hope you are enjoying your Christmas and basking in the reason we celebrate this day – our Lord Jesus. Merry Christmas from KJ and Sam
Our final post on stands today with three wire bonsai by Ken To.
Rosewood Stand maker unknown and Wire Bonsai by Ken To
KJ loves to display these wire bonsai by Ken To in her display cabinet. The stand is from Japan and is made from Rosewood. Strangely enough it appears to be unfinished as I don’t see any traces of varnish or wax on the stand.
Rosewood Stand maker unknown
Rosewood Stand maker unknown
A nice stand with curved legs giving it a soft but voluminous feeling as compared to the next stand.
Ebony Stand maker unknown
It is hard to see from this picture, but the stand appears to be made from ebony as the wood is quite dark. A very classic stand as it is very upright and more formal than the first stand being displayed.
We like this wire tree and its leftward lean. It reminds us of a tree high up in the mountains leaning over the cliffs or perched on a rock and leaning away from the mountain face to acquire more sunshine.
Chinese Rosewood Stand
You will have to comment on this stand. It is an inexpensive stand from China that is decently made and we believe works decently with this Ken To tree. The stand could perhaps be just a bit wider to give the tree and pot more breathing room but we do like the style.
This leads to a interesting question. You know how your bonsai often looks good to the eye, but then when you see it photographed – well it just doesn’t look as good. It seems our eye has a way of sometime overlooking the rough spots whereas a photograph uncovers every weakness.
We suggest if you are about to go into show season, be it bonsai or suiseki, that you take a minute, compose your tree or stone, and take a quick photo. Then take a hour or so and evaluate what you like and don’t like about the setup. We think it will help improve your displays immeasurably.
Sean Smith was kind enough to reach out this morning to inform me that Willi Benz passed away a few days ago. His web site is located here.
Mr. Benz was instrumental in bringing suiseki to Europe and his many friends worldwide will miss him.
Willi Benz received a National Decoration Award from the Federal Republic of Germany.
Below is a Google Translation from the bonsai-fachforum.de web site.
The Announcement from Bonsai Club of Germany
{I have have not altered the translation so as to not add or detract anything that was posted, but understand this is a computerized translation of this text.}
The Bonsai Club of Germany is mourning his honorary member Willi Benz. After suffering heavy yesterday he slept peacefully at home in Baden, one ketch, as his wife Gudrun announced. Benz was 80 years old.
The name of Willi Benz is inextricably linked to the development of Bonsai and Suiseki in Germany and Europe combined. Born in Heidelberg had engaged intensively since 1960 with Asian art and had thus come into contact with bonsai. Benz studied with the great Japanese bonsai masters in China and also won a deep insight into the traditional Chinese art forms.
Benz in 1978 was co-founder of the “Bonsai Club of Germany” (BCD) and motor in the founding of the “German Suiseki Society”. As president of the “European Suiseki Association,” as Vice President of “International Stone Appreciation Museum” in China, “International Stone Collection Association”, the “Bonsai Clubs International” (BCI) and an honorary member of other national and international associations was Benz – always supported by his wife Gudrun – as long as his health permitted it, the world tirelessly for the spread of Bonsai and Suiseki active. Only in December last year, he returned from one of his many trips to Asia.
Also available as an author, Willi Benz had a reputation acquired in the professional world. His writings on Chinese Bonsai and Suiseki, and on “Bonsai, Kusamono, Suiseki – Practical guide for the design of arrangements with plants and stones” were and are highly valued. The club magazine of the BCD Benz was connected virtually from its inception. In his many contributions, he was not only a renowned connoisseur of Bonsai and Suiseki, he took readers deep into the whole world of eastern art and spirituality.
The relentless use of Willi Benz has been widely appreciated. Even in Japan, the motherland of Bonsai and Suiseki, his commitment has found the proper recognition and was awarded the “Order of the Rising Sun” (Kyokujitsushō). This is the highest Japanese order, which can be awarded to foreigners. Also, the Federal Republic of Germany recognized the tireless volunteer efforts by Willi Benz and drew out the birthday boy with the Federal Cross of Merit.
The Friends of Bonsai and Suiseki Benz Will lose a defining personality. His sure, unerring verdict is absent, as are his words of warning. His wife, Gudrun is in these difficult days, our deepest sympathy.
We love finding small stands that can be used for suiseki or for the display of pots. Today we continue to show you a few more stands collected in Japan and paired with a few suiseki.
Rikizo stand and a wave suiseki
Most of us have seen this stand in a larger configuration. This stand however is just around ~20cm and is beautifully crafted. From perfectly placed and spaced risers to well proportioned legs.
Rikizo Stand
A nice design and highly useful for numerous objects including suiseki, bonsai pots, bonsai trees and the like. This stand is made from rosewood – aren’t most Japanese stands – with a design that is pleasing to the eye. Rikizo makes beautifully crafted stands and you immediately notice the quality when handling them.
Rikizo Stand
Notice the design of the legs with the ‘routing’ of some of the material in the center of each side. This does two things from our perspective: 1) reduces the size and strength of the legs; and, 2) matches the many vertical risers in the design.
It is very important that the legs aren’t too heavy as this would distract from the overall look and add even more weight to a table that feels heavy enough.
Suiseki and Stand
We like this combination, forgive the ten-pai on the stand as that was an experiment, as we think the scale of the stone and the stand are right for each other. Our personal taste is for a suiseki to have lots of “room to breath” on the stand. If the stone is taking up most of the stand, our perspective is that it just feels to tight and full. Of course this is a personal perspective and others should feel free to display them in a way that bests suits their eye.
We really fought this tendency at first – to use larger stands – but over time our eyes have just enjoyed seeing the stone with a bit more room.
This daiza for this stone is extremely well made. It is signed by Waseki a daiza maker from Kyoto who no longer makes them due to his age. We are fortunate to have two of his daizas in our collection.
The stone is a Kamogawa stone (h.6.5 x w.7 x d.3.5cm). It has a very rough texture with a beautiful waterfall down the face of the stone. Fortunately the waterfall is only on this side of the stone which is preferred by most collectors.
This stone was once owned by Sugii Chugi who lived in Kyoto Japan and was a prolific collector of small suiskei. We are pleased that we have 5 of his stones in our collection.
Unknown Stand Maker
Please click the above photo so that you can observe the detail in the design. When this stand first arrived, frankly we weren’t sure we liked it. A solid top rather than an inlaid top; however, the more we see this stand the more we think it is well designed and has beautiful craftsmanship. We don’t know why the artist didn’t sign his piece – that is always a disappointment frankly.
The legs are heavy on this stand when viewed at this 45 degree angle but when viewed head-on it doesn’t feel quite as heavy and has very beautiful flowing lines.
Suiseki. When you hear this term what image comes to mind? Does it invoke a feeling, a mood or desire?
Each of us may have a different reaction from 1) Oh! a bunch of rocks on display; 2) that is a beautiful stone; or, 3) contemplation, visualization, recognition and appreciation.
Some of us have been fortunate to collect suiseki books from Japan or China that has a history deep in appreciation for this art form. In this country we have several fine books such as Beyond the Black Mountain by Jim Greaves, Chrysanthemum Stones by Thomas S. Elias and Hiromi Nakaoji and Suiseki – The Japanese Art of Miniature Landscape Stone by Felix G. Rivera; I’m sure there are many others but these happen to be in our collection and used as references.
In the US we have only a few suiseki club shows each year. A more national show has been conducted on the East Coast and from what I can ascertain this has been a success.
To those with the love and passion to publish, I understand that passion. So much so KJ and I have been fortunate enough to design two of the most prominent self-publishing book platforms in the US: Blurb and MyPublisher and we have worked with Apple and Adobe in architecting their back-end publishing systems.
Less than 7 years ago, if you wanted to print your own book, then you were going to pay an arm and a leg per copy or you were going to make a huge commitment to pre-purchase a lot of copies (read 1,000) in order to get your price down. In 2003, we began working with MyPublisher to create one of the very first self-publishing platforms in the US. With the advent of the digital press the one-off publishing industry was launched. Today, you can easily create, print and publish your book for often as low as under $10. Just a few months ago, we published a book on Revelation from the New Testament with 160 pages in black and white at the shipping cost of under $10 per book.
I say this only to make this point – there is really nothing that stands in the way of creating an affordable book on American Suiseki that would showcase the many “hidden away” collections that are sitting on display shelves, garden benches or bedroom closets.
The Proposal
I truly would like to photograph and publish a book on American Suiseki. Is this a large project – yes, most worthwhile projects are of this magnitude.
KJ and I are blessed with the appropriate photography equipment and software plus inside knowledge of the pre-press process with many friends still at Blurb so that we can obtain a good price to publish this book.
We have done sufficient experimentation with Mas, Janet and others to believe we have a process that will allow us to shoot efficiently and document the stones appropriately.
We are willing to spend the money to come to 5-6 geographical locations across the US to shoot the stones if we can find those whose love for this project is equal to ours and who are willing to arrange a location for us to shoot. If you think you are interested then drop us a line and we can begin to discuss the logistical needs for this kind of shoot. For those interested in the process then refer to our previous post – Suiseki Photography – Part II.
There will be guidelines for the book, how it is published, acknowledgements etc. This is not a commercial adventure – we do not intend to make money from this project. Frankly there are much better ways to make not only more money but to do it with less hassle and significantly faster!
This book is being published to help educate the public on what we love about suiseki as well as to document some of the wonderful stones found all across the US. This book is not being created to compete with other books. If you think that – please do not contact us. Frankly, we are sick and tired of the pettiness and jealously that permeates our art.
This book is being done out of a tremendous appreciation for the art form and to showcase the hours spent by literally hundreds of unknown collectors who have spent hundreds of hours collecting in American rivers, streams and lakes without recognition. We would love to include biographies of early US collectors. Having pictures of them and their stones would be priceless in our opinion.
Is it possible? We think so. Will it take time and money? Yes, it will take considerably more of both that I’m sure we can imagine. But if we team up together, use a little imagination, and exhibit a great deal of patience in the process and with each other – we can do this. Don’t you think so?
We do. So much so that we have registered the domain http://americansuiseki.com this morning. We hope to put more info up on that site as we progress and create a blog so that others can follow the creation of the book including photos of the shoot, people assisting the shoot, the book layout etc. I hope you believe as we do that incorporating this kind of social media through the progress be engaging, education and expose us to the wonderful stones throughout our country. We would love to hear your thoughts. If you would please take the following poll.
Today marks our 100th post since we began in August of 2009. So it is only fitting to post about two pots that we added this summer to our collection of Tofukuji pots.
Heian Tofukuji (平安東福寺)
The first thing that struck us about this pot is the color. This beautiful red was used sparingly by Tofukuji and the first time we have seen one for sale. Akio was kind enough to bring it, with a few others, this last summer. We were immediately struck by this pot and acquired it from him. You know that feeling when you see a pot, pick it up and just know that you are not going to set it down again.
Several things to note about this pot: 1) today most small pots like this, or virtually all round pots, have a nice smooth top; Click the photo to see a larger image. Also notice the side of the pots are not uniformed as they would be if thrown on a wheel. This pot seems to have been formed by hand and therefore the “just off” feel that communicates to the eye that this pot has been created very carefully by hand.
Also notice the glaze (easier to see in the enlarged photo) and note the brushstrokes down the sides of the pot. Today new pots seem to mostly have a glaze that is consistently placed on the pot and thereby removing the organic feel that this pot contains.
Heian Tofukuji (平安東福寺) with Mulberry Stand
With this dark red pot, read heavy, attempting to find a stand that works is extremely difficult. The mulberry stand being used it both light and airy. Is it the perfect stand for this pot? No frankly it is not. We attempted to use six other stands for this pot with simply unsatisfactory results.
We are going to see if we can find a very low profile stand for this Tofukuji to better harmonize with this most difficult pot to display. We attempted using a root stand (10cm) and the pot just overwhelmed the stand. It actually looked better on a 25cm root stand believe it or not. In an upcoming post, we will show you the various combinations and let you vote on what you think works – or not.
Heian Tofukuji (平安東福寺)
This is the second Tofukuji pot we acquired this summer. It is being displayed on a Rikizo stand. This is a more typical glaze by Tofukuji and is seen on a great number of his pots. This pot has a more classical form and has many uses.
Would we use this pot in an exhibit – likely if we had the right tree. However, we don’t so this pot is being displayed in one of our display cabinets at home.
One of the reasons we really enjoy suiseki and pot collecting is that we can display them in our home. Thus enjoying them every time we walk past them which is dozens of times per day.
We hope you enjoy seeing Tofukuji’s work as he was a master in glaze, texture and form. In the next few days, we will post on two more pots we acquired from Akio and a beautiful boxwood root stand acquired from our good friend Peter Tea.
Lastly, we want to thank you our readers for the kind comments you have shared with us over these last 100 posts. In the beginning thanks to Janet for suggesting WordPress to communicate our love for suiseki, bonsai and pots. To Jeff, Jonas and Peter for their encouragement via their kind words that they were enjoying our posts. To Mas whose love for suiseki has inspired us to fall in love with it as well. To Boon whose love of bonsai and talent in creating them gave us the courage to join his club to attempt to participate and thrive in a most difficult art form.
Lastly, and most importantly, to KJ who allows me to sometimes (read often) spend more of our income on this art form that we likely should.
Today is Part III of a series on Hirohisa Shimizu’s beautiful stands. This stand was a part of another blot post, but we wanted to include it again to talk more directly about the quality of this stand and why it works so well with suiseki.
Shimizu, Hirohisa stand (24 x 15 x 2.5cm)
We love low profile stands for suiseki. This stand is 24cm wide but only 2.5cm tall which for us is well proportioned. Notice as well the leg brace running the width of the stand – see how he partially raises the brace in the middle? We think that adds a feeling of “airiness” to the stand and we like that he breaks up what could be a very monotonous look by having two nearly parallel lines if the brace was also straight.
Shimizu, Hirohisa stand 24cm
This side view helps to provide an overall view of the stand and frankly we like this photo the best when showing this stand to others who are interested in purchasing them. All the lines are harmonious, leaving us with the feeling of simplicity and the mood of calmness. This was pointed out by one of our readers when we posted before – this feeling of calmness.
For us it is very difficult to obtain this feeling of calm. Often the stand brings a bit of harshness or perhaps more accurately stated a feeling of hardness. This can, of course, work with the proper stone but we who exhibit really need to think through the feeling of the stone, or as importantly the feeling that we wish to impart as we pair up the suiseki with a stand. Of course, this desire to keep harmony is further complicated if one wants to display an exhibit that also includes a tree or a matching scroll. This is the subject for someone who is better qualified than us to speak to this subject such as Hideko Metaxas or Jim Greaves.
Shimizu, Hirohisa stand - corner details
Our final photo of today is the detail in the end-piece. We believe this aspect of the design is key to maintaining this sense of lightness and calmness. By softening the corner by the use of an elongated radial curve, it softens the joining of these two side. How often have we seen plain butt joints on a stand that tends to “bulk” up the look. Also, without the indentation in the radial curve going from top to bottom, even the curve itself would seem quite heavy. Just compare the outside of the corner (lower left) to the inside of the corner (top right).
With just a few moments of observing, we can see that Shimizu is a master craftsmen not only in woodworking but fundamentally more important in the design of these stands.
His series of stands range in price from 25-40,000 Yen; roughly $325 to $525 US. He will also custom design a stand to your specifications; at what price I have no idea.
If you are interested in obtaining any of his stands, please contact us and we will put you in touch with an intermediary in Japan who can acquire them for you.
We hope you enjoyed these stands and I’m sure you will see them many more times as we post up pictures of suiseki and pots perched upon them.
Sam & KJ's Suiseki Blog (水石) 