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Sam & KJ's Suiseki Blog (水石)

Sam & KJ's Suiseki Blog (水石)

Tag Archives: Suiseki

Suiseki Sale: Paul Gilbert and Sam Edge

17 Wednesday May 2023

Posted by Sam Edge in Suiskei

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Tags

Sale, Suiban, Suiseki

Hello from Paul and Sam,

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.

gilbert-and-edge-2023-sales-catalog-v1-5-16-23Download
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Final Mas Nakajima Suiseki Group for Sale

06 Monday Dec 2021

Posted by Sam Edge in Suiskei

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Tags

Mas Nakajima, Sale, Suiseki

I am happy to announce a group of suiseki by Mas Nakajima are available for purchase.  The current catalog is available here: Mas Nakajima Suiseki 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.

Best,

Sam

An Old Suiseki from the Kamogawa

17 Wednesday Dec 2014

Posted by Sam Edge in Japan, Kyoto, Suiseki

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Kyoto, Rai San'yo, Suiseki

It is hard to believe we haven’t posted since who knows when but life has been busy as we moved across the country to be closer to family.

We haven’t been to Japan in a few years which means our collection of Japanese suiseki has been sparse. Our time has been spent collecting stones from Northern California rivers and about those we hope to post soon.  Today, we want to share with you a stone we purchased from Kyoto, Japan.

One of the suiseki sites we take a peek at a few times a week is Mr. Kawai’s located in Kyoto.  We visited him a few years ago and he is not only a delightful individual he has a great collection of stones for sale in his second floor shop above his flower store.  We had seen this stone on his site, but unfortunately the photos were small and didn’t reveal how beautiful this stone actually is.  We were fortunate to have Dr. Tom Elias and Hiromi Nakaoji post a photo of this stone on their VSANA Facebook page after their return from Japan last month.  When we saw it we immediately went back to Mr. Kawai’s site to see if it was available.  After a few days of negotiations on price, we purchased the stone.

Kamogawa (11x4x5")

Kamogawa (28 x 10 x 12.7cm)

This is a remarkable stone and without question one of the nicest in our collection. It reminds us of the stone said to be owned by Rai San’yo a very long time ago and reportedly is from the Kamogawa . The name of this stone is Yamato Murayama (“Mountains of the Kanto Plain”) and is 27.0 x 10.0 x 8.0 cm.

Rai San'yo stone

Rai San’yo stone

We wonder if our stone wasn’t modeled after the Rai San’yo stone. What do you think?  Let’s take a look at the other views of the stone and its daiza.

IMG_0007-6 IMG_0008-6IMG_0003-7Unfortunately the daiza isn’t marked so it is impossible to tell who made it, but their craftsmanship was superb as seen by viewing the detail on it’s edges. Click the photo for a much larger version.

So what about the stone being worked. It is clear to us that it has as we can see marks on the stone. Does it diminish it for us? Not at all.  The Rai San’yo stone was worked as well and it is still shown at the Nippon Suiseki show in Japan.  Clearly because it is an important stone, has a provenance and it quite beautiful.

We only know the stone was in a collection in Japan for a very long time. We have no idea what was the cause for selling it but often stones exchange hands at the end of one’s life.  Regardless of the cause we are quite happy it has a home with us.

Stone Collecting

05 Friday Nov 2010

Posted by Sam Edge in Stone Collecting, Suiskei

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Eel River, Suiseki, Trinity River

One of the benefits of living in Northern California is the abundance of stone collecting locations within a 3-5 hour drive of our home.  Some of them are: Trinity River, Klamath River, Eel River, Thomes Creek and others.  This summer I had the opportunity to collect on the Little Truckee River, the Eel,  and Thomes Creek.

In today’s post, I would like to show you three stones.

Black Butte Stone with Red and Yellow Jasper

Black Butte Stone with Red and Yellow Jasper

When I first found this stone it was wet and the colors were glowing especially the red.  I actually just picked it up to show to one of the 1st time collectors with us but when I arrived back at camp Mas immediately saw a nice mountain stone!  I didn’t – it goes to show you that I need to sometimes just slow down and study the stone a bit longer.

Flaming Red

Flaming Red

This isn’t the same stone but it does show you what the red looks like when it is wet.  When I first saw this stone sitting in a few inches of water I thought of Moses and the burning bush and how the stone looked on fire.

The mountain stone in the first photo is something I would like to keep uncut but in doing so the mountain is diminished and the overall visual quality is reduced.  Therefore, I think this stone is appropriate to cut (let’s not go down the discussion road of cut or not to cut) and I thought I would use Photoshop to attempt to find the cut line.

View-3

View-3

This is view three and has the least amount of rotation on the stone for cutting.

View-2

View-2

This has just a tab more rotation to emphasis the peak a bit more and to move it just a bit to the left.  You can see the amount of rotation by looking at the bottom right corner of the photos.

View-1

View-1

View 1 is significantly rotated counter-clockwise and gives a much different stone.

So which do you like? Or better yet do you have a better suggestion?

I really like this stone with its fall colors.  It reminds me of a distant mountain stone with the tree leaves putting on its fall colors.

Close up view of the mountain stone

Close up view of the mountain stone

Stone hunting for me is like flyfishing – I go for the excitement of the hunt but expect to come home with nothing in my bag.  Note: I love to fly fish but I follow a strict zero take rule – the fish are always returned to the river.  With stones, it is much the same way – many are returned to the spot I picked them up.  I have learned that I only take stones that have a high degree of possibility of staying in my collection.

I would like to take a moment on that subject. When we first begin to collect stones, we have the tendency to pick up way too many stones and haul them back home.  I have now become much more selective on the river; however, that doesn’t guarantee that I will not still bring back  home a stone that I should have left riverside.  So what can you do to help you determine if you should keep the stone?  I use this simple process.  After you get home and have cleaned up the stone set it up where you will see it every day.  For me it is in our greenhouse where I keep accent plants and maple trees.  For you it might be your bonsai bench or in the garden.  Put it somewhere that insures you will see it most every day.  Leave it there for several months.  If you find yourself stopping to look at it everyday – that is likely a keeper.  If, however, the stone somehow disappears – even though it is in the open – then I suggest you return that stone to the river.

Our eyes have a tendency to be attracted to things but then to quickly tire of them.  The process above helps to assure you that you keep the very best stones in your collection.

The Sierras

Oh what a trip this turned out to be.  It was a one day trip that ended up costing me $800 – flat tire and bent rim.  This is what happens when you don’t pay attention and hit a pot hole on a backroad.  We were 25 miles from Truckee (Mas, Janet and myself) and while changing the tire the car fell off the jack!  Yep, I should have also paid more attention to the slope of the road.  Needless to say, the engineers had made the jack so it still could slip under the car sans right front wheel and we successfully exchanged flat for a new tire and off we went.

The Little Truckee holds a special place for us.  It is the very first river I flyfished some 15 years ago.  With zero knowledge of how to cast, mend and keep my dry fly “dry” I some how still managed to catch my first wild rainbow trout. I was hooked!

Returning to the river for the first time in 15 years it was fun to walk up and down the banks.  I must have walked about a mile of the river bed without finding any “keepers” and just before heading up the steep bank I looked down and saw this natural stone.

The dog stone!

The dog stone!

Hard to believe is what I thought when I picked it up.  There is even an eye and a bit of a mouth.  I don’t really look for object stones – not that I’m opposed to them whatsoever, it is just that often when I see them your imagination has to kick into high gear to see what someone else sees.  This stone hasn’t been cleaned yet so my hope is that it really brightens up a bit but nevertheless it is a good object stone.

Now let us take a peek at the reverse side.

Is it Dino the dinosaur?

Is it Dino the dinosaur?

Interesting enough this was the side that was up when I found the stone.  Is it a dog or a dinosaur head?  For those who are in our age bracket or who love cartoons (who doesn’t?) it reminds me of Dino the Flintstone’s pet dinosaur.

This will be a fun stone to have mounted and displayed in the house.

Eel River

This next stone I found while collecting on the GSBF trip last week.  It is the only stone I took home and this photo doesn’t do it justice. After the diaza is made, I will post this stone again.

Mountain stone with water pouring down the right side

Mountain stone with water pouring down the right side

It is hard to tell from this photograph (not enough time today to setup the stone upright to shoot) but it has a small mountain, a lake and a somewhat waterfall.  If you take a look at the white of the stone it even seems to resemble a tiger or polar bear.  Does anyone else see that or is it just me?

This is a stone I will study for a while on the garden bench.  Mas liked this stone very much – so do I – but I still want to sit with it for a while to determine how to display it.  There are three ways this stone can be seen and in one of our next posts I will do a better job of photographing it under studio lights to see all three positions.

Well, I better sign off for today.  I hope you are encouraged to get out there and do some stone hunting.  I can’t wait until 4:30am tomorrow to jump out of bed and go hunt stones.  No telling what I might find!

GSBF 2010 – Suiseki on Display

02 Tuesday Nov 2010

Posted by Sam Edge in Doban, Suiskei

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Doban, GSBF, Suiseki

This is a continuation of the post from 10/30/2010 and today we wanted to post some photos of the suiseki that were on display.  Forgive us for not posting photos of the trees as most of these are available to be seen on the various bonsai club web sites.

A personal note: The bonsai setup and display was excellently done this year by Peter Tea. The suiseki part of the display was designed by Hideko Metaxas with assistance by Polly Gould and it was superb as well.   It was a small collection of suiseki and bonsai trees but it was tastefully and artistically constructed and I believe most of our clubs could learn from this setup.

This post will contain 16 photos from the show.  I didn’t post/photograph every stone at the show but only those that held my interest the most will be shown below.  This doesn’t in anyway mean the others were not beautiful suiskei – but as in all art forms certain objects rapidly draw our eyes and attention. I will not comment on these stones (with an exception or two) as they can speak for themselves.

A beautiful mountain stone reminsecent of Mt. Fuji

A beautiful mountain stone reminiscent of Mt. Fuji

I have only seen one stone that comes close to the beauty of this stone.  It is for sale at www.j-bonsai.com under the suiseki menu item. Search on this page for item number: MS8110. If you are so inclined you can purchase the one on Yoshi’s site for a mere 1,320,000 Yen.  At today’s exchange rate it will set you back ~$16,340.

A waterfall stone from the Eel River

A waterfall stone from the Eel River

I love the tranqulity and beauty of this suiseki.

I love the tranqulity and beauty of this suiseki.

Superb colors in a mountain stone

Superb colors in a mountain stone

A mountain range - I believe from Italy - what a beauty

A mountain range - Furuya-ishi - what a beauty

Moutain stone with waterfall

Moutain stone with waterfall

A Doha suiseki

A Doha suiseki

Detail of the diaza - only an artist can create a diaza like this!

Detail of the diaza - only an artist can create a diaza like this!

What can be said about this suiseki?  Beautiful.

What can be said about this suiseki? Beautiful.

Hut Stone

Hut Stone

I can’t tell you how badly I wanted to move this stone to take a photograph.  As in most public settings, sometimes the position of the stone just isn’t right for photography; however, this stone is perhaps the largest hut stone I have personally viewed and being natural and uncut makes it even more special.

Mountain suiseki

Mountain suiseki

Mountain suiseki - my best guess is an Eel River stone

Mountain suiseki - my best guess is an Eel River stone

The next few photos are of displays of suiskei in a reduced sized Tokonoma.  It is very difficult to capture these correctly with a point-and-shoot digital camera so forgive us for the photos that will not be correctly color corrected.  Enjoy them nevertheless.

Suiskei, scroll and accent plant

Suiskei, scroll and accent plant

Closeup of the suiseki

Closeup of the suiseki

Top View

Top View

The suiseki is wet as it should be in this setting.

Suiseki Art - you need to see this in person to appreciate how spectacular this is!

Suiseki Art - you need to see this in person to appreciate how spectacular this is!

Bridge stone

Bridge stone

GSBF – Suiseki Panel Discussion

30 Saturday Oct 2010

Posted by Sam Edge in Diaza, Suiskei

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Eel River, Suiseki

First and foremost, it has been over five months since my last blog post and that is hard for even me to believe.  Our schedule has been hectic with the children home from college this summer and work keeping us on the road since September.  We hope to get back to a regular posting schedule as long as work doesn’t require the constant travel back and forth from the Bay Area to Santa Monica, CA.

The Golden State Bonsai Federation convention was this week in Santa Clara, CA.  Fortunately that is only about 30 miles from our home.  In the earlier part of the week, Janet Roth had invited me to join her and about 30 others on a tanseki (stone collecting trip) to the Eel River in Northern California approximately 175 miles from our home in the East Bay.

Janet and Sue planned a terrific trip for those who signed up for this portion of the convention.  Many who joined us had never been on a tanseki before so that was thrilling to see the excitement on their faces the morning we arrived riverside.  We were able to hunt for stones for about 5 hours before the heavy rains began and just about everyone found a stone or two.

That evening we had dinner at a local Chinese restaurant and might I say that Sue and Janet did an awesome job of selecting foods for us.  There was way too much too eat – and everyone left quite pleased.

After dinner Felix Rivera gave us a fine lecture on suiseki and Bob began the process of reviewing stones found earlier in the day.  Unfortunately I didn’t take photos as the room was not conducive for this purpose.  The next morning, we had hoped to head back out for more stone collecting but the weather simply did not cooperate and instead a quick three hour program was put together to review more stones that were collected the previous day.  John did a fine job of evaluating these stones, and I must say that several very nice stones were found by first time collectors.

Today, Saturday 10/30/2010, there was a Suiseki Panel Discussion held at the GSBF convention that ran for just over three hours.  There was a strong panel of suiskei experts including: Jim Greaves, Hideko Metaxas, Mas Nakajima, Larry Ragle, and Felix Rivera.

Bob lead us in the discussion with short presentations by everyone on the panel. I may blog more about that at another time but for today’s post I want to concentrate on the presentation given by Hideko Metaxas.

If you have never had the opportunity to listen to her wisdom and insight, might I suggest that you simply try and determine where she is going to be next, go there, and plant yourself in a chair.  Our suiseki club, San Francisco Suiseki Kai was privileged one Saturday earlier in the year to visit her home and be under her instruction on suiseki presentation.  A day that I will simply not forget.  Her grace, her insights, her wisdom and simply her beauty and outlook on life is frankly – unique.

Her presentation today was simply no different.  So what did I learn today – frankly a simple concept for the mind but frankly illusive for the heart.  She spoke about how suiseki started and how most stones where of the size that could be held in the hand.  She describes how the viewer attempts to place this stone in the visual context of a space must larger than the hand.  Her apt description is that of holding a part of the universe in your hands and the emotions invoked both in the mind and heart.  Sometimes of sadness and sometimes of intense peace.  She had several stones that evoked that feeling for me.

Let me add that Hideko always points out that the visual and emotional experience is quite different for each person – in the eye of the beholder.  So what I’m going to provide is my view of these stones knowing that they may be quite different for you.

Let me say these photographs in no way represent how these stones looked in person.  First they were not shot with the appropriate lighting conditions to reproduce color with a great degree of accuracy.  Secondly, I only had 1 minute in order to take all of these photographs as many others wanted to see and photograph them as well.  Nevertheless, these “quick snapshots” will impart to some degree the beauty of these stones.  Let me emphasis though that I have never seen a photograph do justice to seeing the suiseki in person.  And in particular the opportunity of holding these stones only adds to the visceral experience.

I was unable to capture the maker of the diaza nor the original owner. I will try to obtain this information from her and update the post next week. [Author Note: I received an email today (11/7) from Hideko and she informed me that the maker was Isseki Miyazaki.  If I receive a bio on him I will post it.] Hideko explained to us that she has owned this stone for a good while but yet doesn’t completely understand what this stone is communicating to the prior owner or to herself.  I very much like this explanation as often it takes careful observation, if not meditation, for the stone to communicate to you what it is trying to express or convey.

From a personal perspective, the stone evoked the following to me.  I see this stone and I’m reminded of times when I have been alone and truly missing home.  As I look across the vast landscape of this scene, it reminds me of how far my own home is (2,200 miles) and the loneliness I encounter when I haven’t seen my immediate family for a long period of time.

The diaza is exquisite and was carefully handcrafted by the artist who created it.

Just look at the detail in the carving. This is a top view and where the stone is cradled for display.  The long channels are where the stone protrudes down into the diaza; whereas, the small indentations hold the portion of the stone that is significantly flatter.  The suiseki this stone holds is a natural and uncut stone.

The diaza maker didn’t stop with this type of detail just on the top look at the art on the bottom and the artist signature.

Is this not simply a work of art?  Imagine the number of hours required to carefully carve the upper portion of the diaza so that it gently snuggles and holds the suiseki.  However, even more time was then spent carving out another beautiful scene on the bottom of the diaza even though this would seldom ever be viewed.  The next time we are in Japan you can bet I will be on the lookout for a stone/diaza combination by this individual.

Once again this photo in no way depicts the true beauty of this stone.  It is deeply black and smooth and evokes a feeling of tranquility.  Holding this stone deepens that experience significantly beyond just the visual experience.  This suiseki is from Japan and I believe it is a Setagawa river stone located near Kyoto.  The texture is called “pear” as it has fine bumps or dimples on the stone.

As black is the absence of color or in the CMYK world of printing inks on paper, it simply doesn’t reflect light – therefore the light is absorbed by the object.  This is apt as it tends to absorb my thoughts as well.

Eel River Suiskei

Eel River Suiskei

This last suiseki is very special to Hideko as she personally collected it on the Eel River in Northern California. The diaza is made by the artist Mas Nakajima.  It is an extraordinary piece of craftsmanship by Mas harmonizing with the stone and in no way over shadowing it or hindering the suiseki from one’s view.

The colors are deep and the patina of this stone is rich.  It is no wonder this is such a special suiseki for her and I would venture to say it has to be one of great importance in her collection.

So how do we end today’s post – I think it is simply this in two constructs: 1) It is wonderful to experience this educational experience by those who have deep and personal knowledge with suiseki; and, 2) it should encourage each of us to make every attempt to organize and experience as many tanseki trips as we can.  I find it very ironic that often we don’t engage in the art form of suiseki until many of us display the graceful color gray in our hair which often is a sign that we simply don’t have a very long time to collect stones such as this – so let it be a reminder that we need to take every opportunity to get out doors and enjoy the sun, collecting and our friends in this passionate art and hobby.

Kühl Lites – Table Top Photography

19 Wednesday May 2010

Posted by Sam Edge in Bonsai Pots, Suiskei, Tofukuji

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Heian Tofukuji, Suiseki, Tofukuji

Taking photographs of suiseki and pots for us has been a real challenge.  There always seems to be a struggle in setting things up and then shooting photos that didn’t need a lot of work in Photoshop to get the color reproduction correctly.  Late last week we decided it was time to purchase some lights to help out in this process.  I don’t know about you but attempting to figure out what lights would work best to some degree is like trying to find the proverbial needle in the haystack.  There are so many options.  We were looking for something that could be easily setup and that didn’t cost us a paycheck.

I think we finally found the right solution with Kühl Lites which can be found here.  You can read all about these lights at their site but the thing we liked about them is they are small, a complete set, and very reasonably priced.  However, all of that said the proof is in the photographs.  We set everything up quickly this morning and took a variety of shots that we believed would test the lights well.  The following photographs were shot in a two light setup using a Canon 5d digital camera.  The camera was set to 5400K to match the light source.

So here we go.  I hope you will take some time to give us some “tough” feedback.  Some of these photos came out spot on in color.  Others the background was a bit too gray (shooting against a white background) so some more experimentation will need to occur to get things just right.  All of that said we were pleased with the first results and believe we can get even better photos with some more experimentation.

Black Butte Stone

Black Butte Stone

The first thing we noticed was that the color of this stone in the photo almost matches perfectly what this stone looks like.  One can see the natural and true colors in the crop of this photo below.

Cropped photo taken from the above photo.

Cropped photo taken from the above photo.

The depth of field on this photo is not perfect in that the back of the stone is a bit out of focus but overall we like the look.

Washington State Jade

Washington State Jade

Washington State jade is a shiny almost black stone which can be very difficult to photograph.  Trying to avoid hot spots can be tough while trying to obtain a good contrast with decent shadows.  Overall we are pleased with this photo but what do you think?

Japanese Suiseki

Japanese Suiseki

We have posted about this stone before but thought this was another good example to shoot.  Typically before in shooting the stones without decent lights, it would require a good 30 minutes of editing in Photoshop to remove the background and to lay in a new one such as shown above.  Using better lighting, more seamless, it took literally three clicks to remove the white background!  What an improvement.  The blue sky effect was created using the gradient filter in Photoshop with the colors of blue and white.   There were no residual pixels surrounding the stone therefore no “bit twiddling” to remove the artifacts from the background removal – thank goodness.

Well stones are difficult at best to shoot to get natural results.  So we moved on to photographing a few pots in our collection.  Pots under lights are notorious for hot spots.  Some reflection is good as it gives the eyes/brain a sense of texture.

Tokonome Pot in a beautiful glaze

Tokonome Pot in a beautiful glaze

The new lighting helped to obtain a near accurate color capture of this pot.  With its green and blue glaze we hoped to capture these colors as if shot in natural light.

Close up of the glaze

Close up of the glaze

I’m not sure how this glaze is created but I assume the potter adds some type of additive that gives it this mottled look.  We have a smaller version of this pot by a different potter that we displayed a Zelkova in a few years back and it was a great match.  The potter must be very skilled to obtain this effect and this particular potter did an excellent job in both texture, color matching with an overall pleasing visual effect.

Tofukuji pot

Tofukuji pot

This Tofukuji pot was purchased through an antique pot dealer in Japan in 2008.  Similar versions can be seen in the Tofukuji pot book shown on this site but typically in single color glazes.  We were very pleased with this photograph as it represents exactly what this pot looks like in day light.  Here is a close up of the pot.

Tofukuji Pot

Tofukuji Pot

Bunzan pot

Bunzan pot

This is a Bunzan pot on a Chinese stand (new) which was given to us by Boon.  The use of color is excellent for this small pot.  We have more than 50 Bunzan pots in our collection mostly in the garden but not this one – it stays in the house.

Close up of the Bunzan pot

Close up of the Bunzan pot

We believe that Bunzan attempts to glaze his pots in the style of Tofukuji .  You can decide how well he does this; however, we can tell you his pots are distinctive and quite frankly under priced for the quality.  Many of his pot styles leave much to be desired but we do admire his square and rectangular pots more than his round ones.

Bunzan - people holding hands

Bunzan - people holding hands

A side view of this pot where you can see the symbolic representation of two people holding hands.  We have three pots using this same design strategy modeled after a few famous Tofukuji pots. An example is shown below.

A $9,000 Tofukuji pot

A $9,000 Tofukuji pot

Well it was fun using our new lighting setup and we are pleased with the first results.  We believe more work is required to obtain a cleaner background (more white over the gray gradient).  We look forward to feedback and what you think about our first attempt to use these lights.  Good photographs come through hard work and getting decent photographs requires patience and testing.

Northern California Suiseki Stones

10 Saturday Apr 2010

Posted by Sam Edge in Koji Suzuki, Suiskei, Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Black Butte Lake, Klamath River, Koji Suzuki, Suiseki, Trinity River

Late last summer I took several trips with our local suiskei club to collect Northern California stones.  We visited Black Butte Lake, the Trinity and Klamath rivers.  If you haven’t had a chance to visit these locations you should try.

Black Butte Lake stone in multicolor jasper

Black Butte Lake stone in multicolor jasper

I’m curious what many of you think about this stone.  When I first found it I showed it to a few of those on the trip with me and they just looked at it and used those deadly words “that is interesting.”  Of course suiseki, or what I love about it, is that what truly counts is one’s own viewpoint of the beauty inherent in the stone.  I showed it to Mas and with his usual quiet study of the stone he said “it is your kind of stone.”

Mas is a man of quiet intellect but what I enjoy most about him is his contemplative ways and his ability to understand through precise and insightful observations.  Mas was right you know – it was my kind of stone.

The color, texture and feel of this stone when I picked it up and observed it struck me as quite beautiful.  As I looked at the top most peek, I could wonder what might be around that corner going from left to right.  When a stone allows my imagination to begin to work I know for me I have found a stone that must return home.  Is this a classical mountain stone – certainly not – one could even argue it may look more like a rugged cliff stone near the ocean, but for me it is a bit too smooth and shiny for that.  It does remind me though of being high in the sierras in the late evening.

Black Butte Lake is an artificial lake located in Tehama and Glenn Counties, California, USA. The lake was formed from Stony Creek in 1963 upon the completion of Black Butte Dam by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.  It is about 180 miles from our home in the Bay Area so a reasonable drive.

A red and yellow jade mountain stone

A red and yellow jade mountain stone

This is a cut stone and let me admit first hand – it isn’t the best example of a mountain stone.  That being said I love the color of this stone. It is as if spring is underway with high mountain colors of flowers in bloom.  The stone drops sharply on the right and even though I often see this in Japanese stones I’m not sure it strikes my eye without a bit of a jarring effect.  Nevertheless, it will stay in our collection for several reasons.  How often do you find a stone of such striking color?  I found it when both KJ and our new baby yellow lab Samson was walking along the lake shore. This was our first trip with Samson and he is such a wonderful yellow lab.  Even though he was barely five months old he was well behaved and just tagged along for the walk.

Both of the diazas were made by Koji Suzuki and the yellow mountain stone was cut by him as well.

Earlier that summer our club had taken a trip to the Trinity and the Klamath rivers.  On our drive up to our camp ground on the Klamath we stopped for lunch on the bank of the Trinity River.  It was a beautiful spot with picnic tables, shade trees, and the cool breeze of the roaring river.  I will post photos of that trip at some point.

After lunch we decided to try our hand at locating a few nice stones along the riverbank.  As I was wandering around turning over stones, I came to a clump of bushes that went right into the water.  I decided to go rummaging around in the bushes and low and behold just lying on the ground was this stone.  Janet has reminded me on several trips that often a stone is just lying there as if waiting for you to finally show up to pick it up.  This was clearly the case with this beautiful stone.  Not a single piece of this stone was underground – it was just as if it was patiently waiting for me to come along to pick it up and admire it.

Trinity River Stone

Trinity River Stone

Many are going to look at this stone and say “well it has been polished!”  Frankly, if I hadn’t been the one to pick it up in this exact state that is exactly what I would have said as well.  Is this a classic suiseki shape – of course not.  Do we love this stone – yes we do!

I ran this stone over to Mas to see what he thought.  He agreed that had he not been there he would have thought this old patina was created through polishing.  Mas thought this was perhaps the best stone our group found that day – at least until that point…  It is a beautiful stone from both sides.  We elected to have this side be the front as it just “felt better.”  Several people who have seen this stone have said that it should be cut to make a nice mountain stone.  To cut this stone would be to take away the very heart and beauty of it.  To think of the years that this stone was in the water being polished by the running water and sand that cascaded across all sides of this stone.  How long did it take to create this smooth and beautiful patina.  Certainly it was in the river for years and years.  What caused it to reach the shoreline and decide to stay rather than being returned the following winter – who knows.  Perhaps had we not been there that day to pick it up it would have returned last winter when the river once again rose and raged.  But on that Saturday we were there at just the right time to see its beauty and to make it a part of our collection.

To be direct this is not a stone we will sell or give away. At some point it will be returned to the trinity as it reminds us that most things in life are never owned but simply on loan.  I hope you think the diaza Koji Suzuki made for this stone allows us to appreciate it in how it is displayed.

Later that afternoon we headed on up to the Klamath river where we stayed less than 100 yards away from the water.  On Sunday, while walking the banks I had decided to run back and pick up a stone that I had sat aside to show Mas to see what he thought of it.  While walking back and before crossing over some 6 foot bushes to where our group was sitting on the river bank while watching small, fresh steelhead running through the water I looked down and saw this stone.

Tranquility

Tranquility

We will need to post some more photos of this stone for you as this bronze color patina is natural and unpolished by human hands.  At first when I saw it I wasn’t quite sure what it was other than a deep copper colored bronze-like stone.  When I picked it up and held it the thing that struck me about this stone was it’s softness – and just by holding it it brought a sense of tranquility.  Often I see or hold stones and its texture and color brings other emotions of almost all of which are not tranquility.  I’m not saying that looking at a nice distant mountain stone doesn’t bring about a sense of peace but this stone exuded a state of tranquility.  Much like when you are quietly walking through a forest where even the sound of your feet somehow never escapes the ground to your ears.  That kind of quietness – that sense of peace.

We debated a long time how to display this stone.  Our first thought was just a simple pillow – I still think this is best – but in the end we wanted to have a diaza made for this stone so we can display it as some future point in a show.  Is this stone perfectly smooth – we think not, but it does give a sense of smoothness in a turbulent world.  My personal work is often extremely stressful, most start-ups are, and the one I’m helping is no exception.  Trying to raise capital, building a product on a limited budget, and trying to meet often conflicting priorities will raise one’s blood pressure. What I do find though when I think my day is spiraling out of control is that I walk away from my computer(s) and I take a few minutes to gaze upon this stone at least for a short moment a sense of tranquility departs from it and envelops my state of mind.

Let me say that many who read this post might wonder if the stress hasn’t perhaps sent me over the ‘edge’ – no pun intended – but I would challenge you that if your stones or suiseki isn’t evoking this kind of visceral reaction are you taking enough time to study your stone to see what it has to offer?

I must admit that before we took up suiseki and tanseki trips, we often saw stones and quickly passed by them. Sometimes with a brief appreciation but often that was only fleeting.  Perhaps age has something to do with the desire to slow down and to take the time to be a bit more observant of one’s surroundings.  I’m not exactly sure but we do know that these stones in our lives recently have caused us to pause and ponder – isn’t that a good thing?

Danseki – Terrace or Step Stone

19 Friday Mar 2010

Posted by Sam Edge in Diaza, Japan, Suiskei

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

"Japan Trip 2010", Sugii, Suiseki

The danseki stone often incorrectly called a doha (open flat space resembling a plain with often a mountain at one end) is frankly pretty hard to find.  Not wanting to make the same mistake we made in bonsai, purchasing many trees we should have never bought, in suiseki we determined early on if that we were to purchase a stone it should be a very good stone.  In heading to Japan we hope to find a high quality doha or even better yet a danseki stone.  We have seen a number of these offered but more often or not they were just “OK” stones in either shape, texture or quality.

When we walked onto the second floor of the green club this stone not only caught our attention but caused us to stop and to really evaluate this stone.

Danseki with kiri box and inscription

Danseki with kiri box and inscription

This is a two-step danseki and it would have been nice to have three steps but regardless this is a quality stone as can be told by its heritage but more on that in a moment.  Once again we need to have the inscription translated and frankly I’m clueless as to why we didn’t do this while we were in Japan.

This stone is 33 x 7.6 cm in size.  This approaches the maximum size stones we collect or purchase.  We were struck by the quality of the stone in numerous ways: shape, color, patina, and its ability to remind me of fly-fishing the Upper Sacramento River one of our favorite rivers to be on in Northern California.

Top view of the stone

Top view of the stone

Sorry for the light quality in this photo, yep it is time to purchase a lightbox or better lights, but hopefully you can see some of the detail in the top of this stone.  The patina is clear as are the riffles in the water to me.  Oh yes, I realize that a danseki is often viewed as a stepped plain, but I would like to think this could also be a river.  The color of the stone is excellent and is very tranquil to me – exactly how I feel on a river casting a fly or just enjoying the scenery.

The Upper Sacramento River

The Upper Sacramento River

This stone is long but narrow and it works for us.  Perhaps this is another reason this reminds us of a river rather than a plain.

The bottom of the stone and its diaza

The bottom of the stone and its diaza

The diaza is well made and has some age to it.  I discovered one nick on it and whereas a few years ago this would have troubled me greatly – today it simply doesn’t bother me.

I did ask the provenance on the stone and was told it once belonged to Mr. Sugii Chuji.  I knew by seeing the stamp on the bottom of the kiri wood box that this was a famous collector.

Mr. Sugii's seal - Paulownia

Mr. Sugii's seal - Paulownia

“Sugii Chuji (1930-2007) Born in Tateyama City, Chiba.  He was introduced to the hobby of suiseki in 1966 by the present Chairman of the Japan Suiseki Association, Matsurra Arishige. He is a major suiseki collector active from the mid-Showa to the Heisei Period.  He was Chairman of the Sugii Kogyosho, a manufacturer of cardboard containers established in 1922.  He was a famous suiseki enthusiast.  He learned under Katayama Teiichi of Ichiu-kai and received the penname “Utei.”  He was an instructor of the Katayama style Keido, and was also Advisor to the Japan Suiseki Association. ”  The Sen-En-Kyo Collection of Japanese Viewing Stones.

Does this add value to the stone?  Well we think this up to each of us who collect or purchase stones if we feel it adds value or not.  We have an opinion but frankly that opinion is only important to us – you agree?

Well we enjoy this stone, and others in our collection, so much so we have finally decided to have a display cabinet built in the house so we can take them out of the closet (cat loves to knock stuff of shelves) and hopefully have more of them on display soon.

Enjoy your weekend, KJ and Sam

Suiseki – Wave Stone

16 Tuesday Mar 2010

Posted by Sam Edge in Japan, Koji Suzuki, Suiskei

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

"Japan Trip 2010", Koji Suzuki, Suiseki

Over the next week we would like to do numerous posts on the suiseki that we were fortunate enough to acquire while on our trip to Japan this year.  It was fun to post lots of photos from the Green Club and we hope you enjoyed those, but these photos are much more personal to us as these are stones we were attracted and sufficiently so to make a purchase.

I will not delve in this post into the almost “religious” debate about buying stones vs. personally collecting them.  Without question this is bound to raise many viewpoints and most of them conflicting with each other.  Let me just say this and then move on.  Suiseki to us is about what “we” like and it begins and stops there in lots of ways.  To many this is heresy in that suiseki has been classified by many parties and what we have observed is that virtually no one agrees to a uniform and respected classification.  OK enough for today on this subject.

This stone was the last stone we bought on the trip and in may have brought about the most joy as we think this is a beautiful stone that elicits all kind of visual and emotional responses.

Suiseki Wave Stone

Suiseki Wave Stone

When we were discussing purchasing this stone, the seller asked us what we saw.  We looked at the stone for a minute and indicated that we saw a hut stone.  This was already after he had disclosed that the box holding the stone said “wave.”  Of course we saw the wave, but frankly in an abstract sort of way we also saw a thatched hut.

Hut stones in particular are an enigma as frankly most of them that actually look like huts are manufactured stones, meaning carved, and those that are truly hut stones only faintly resemble them or perhaps better said they are an abstract representation of one.

You tell us wave or hut?  Does it really matter.  To us no – but what we love about this stone is that it can generate this type of discussion.  At home we tend to put out a stone about once a week to really enjoy and concentrate upon and this stone is no exception to the “concentrate upon” idea.  This stone contains for us what we really like – motion, depth, color, gracefulness and last but perhaps most importantly it ignites our imagination.

This suiseki reminds me of my first visit to the Pacific Ocean (Carmel, CA) where I stood watching the waves crash on the beach.  Having grown up in Memphis, I must tell you it was spellbinding.  To watch an endless series of waves approaching and cascading into the beach.  This stone reminds me of exactly that – just at that moment where the wave turns over on itself.  That indentation where surfers like to hide knowing that the ride within this wave is about to come to and end so enjoy it in solitude even though all hell may be breaking around you.  Almost a paradox isn’t it – peace and tranquility amongst force, motion and noise.

In some ways this is suiseki to us.  The ability in a day of motion, stress and noise to gain peace and tranquility while gazing on a small stone that represents artistically something on a much more grand scale.

If suiseki is new to you and as you read this you go “what the…” we understand that view.  Only a few years ago I had the same reaction.  It is only a rock – never say that to a suiseki purest by the way!  But perhaps that is why many suiseki collectors are a bit older or should I say grayer.  In the later stages of life one begins to look beyond the surface to attempt to see beyond the obvious.

Top of the wave

Top of the wave

This photo is perhaps a bit jarring after the above discussion but we wanted to return to taking about the physical attributes of this stone.  If you have collected suiseki for a while, and I mean personally walked up and down the river looking for them, then you will understand when we say how often we believe we have just found a wonderful stone, lets say a mountain stone, to pick it up admire its front to then turn it around and see the back disqualifies it from being a great stone.  If the back runs in rather than having a soft run out then the back distracts from the stone’s overall beauty.

Perhaps we can say that the perfect stone is one that is beautiful from all four sides: front, back, top and bottom.  Most stones in this country that are collected are cut on the bottom as this provides in many cases a beautiful front, back and top.  However, suiseki collectors know that to find an uncut stone where there is harmony on all four sides is something to behold.

This stone falls in that category – for us.  It has a great front, top, bottom and back.  I guess we could add side as well but to me if those four work it is unlikely you have a bad side; even though of course that is possible.

I don’t know why this stone was sold frankly.  Perhaps it was from someone that had passed away, tired of it, needed money – we simply don’t know.  I do know that for whatever the reason, we are happy that we were fortunate enough to add it to our collection to enjoy for many years to come.

The kiri wood storage box with inscription.

The kiri wood storage box with inscription.

The seller indicated the inscription said wave but frankly I haven’t had time to validate that.  Perhaps Janet or Mas could offer up a translation for us.  We only know that we are pleased when we purchase a stone that it comes in a box and even happier when there is an inscription.  What can only be seen faintly is that to the left of the bottom character is a red seal. Much too faint in this photograph to discern what it is, but perhaps at our next club meeting we can get to the bottom of what it says.  Lastly for those interested the diaza was created by Koji Suzuki – and perhaps this is how we can determine the history on this stone.

Well we hope you have enjoyed this post about our “wave” stone, and we think you will enjoy our future posts about other suiseki we acquired as well.

Please comment your thoughts about today’s post!  Sam and KJ

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