Stones I found in the Kamogawa, Kyoto

Hi Peterbrod

I had fun making the feltdaiza, but I also think wood is better. I will take a sharp look at the stone before carwing the profile......

ind regards Yvonne

Hi Yvonne

Though I am not really into suiseki, I really like this stone with color, shape, it's history...well everything. I also liked the original idea of a pillow. I was thinking that a purple silk pillow of japanese silk fabric would supplement the lady. But if you decide to go for a wooden daiza, my first thought was to suggest purpleheart wood. I think purpleheart wood would make an interesting daiza, let alone very unique with the purple color both contrasting the reds in the stone and enhancing the feminine image. Also, the purple color holds religious symbolic qualities in many religions.

I couldn't place a link to info on purpleheart wood. You can google it, though. If you need to see and feel this wood, you can contact any knife supply store in DK.

regards to you
/Loke Emil

Hello Yvonne,
Have been watching and enjoying the chatter,
and not so quick to respond, very interesting.
So many choices, I think peter's are the best!,
However don't give up on your idea of a pillow!,
For so many reasons can be the perfect one,
especially for this stone...
less is more

Hi Peterbrod

Many thanks for the new drawing....I prefer the profile to the left, this is the one, I am going to use.

Hi Loke Emil and Stonener
I have been in contact with every knife supply store in Denmark....they only have quit small pieces of wood. Too small for daizas. The stone has no red.
I am not interested in a silkpillow anymore, as I found out, a stone is best placed on a pillow if the stone has a some pointed dawn buttom...this one hollows in a bit, and the sand stay under. The stone does not really sink in.

Kind regards Yvonne

An update of the stones I found on the trip to Kyoto 2012

The stones are now in a daiza, and I enjoy them every day....more about the stones, and meassures can you see my topic " my foreign stones"

I will go back To Kyoto tomorrow...one week with stonesearch, and other nice things ( temples).
I hope to find a few nice stones...I am planning to go further up in/towards the mountains, and longer dawn the river this time...I can hardly wait....also will I try to find more stones in the soil.

Afterwards am I heading for Tokyo, for 5 days, during the Kofuku Ten days....I have signed up for a daytrip to Omiyas gardens and museum...This is a free offer incl. free lunch given by "International Relations Bureau" and starts from the front of the "Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum".
Aslo am I hoping to revisit the japanese collector and stonedealer, who has taught me a lot about suiseki....I may have a few more questions....it was this collector who sold me the small Kyotostone, I showed at "Noelanders"

I hope to have some nice update and photos after the trip.

Kind regards Yvonne

thanks for letting us "tag" along. will look forward to your sharing your trip with us.

Hello Yvonne,
This must be quit an experience, seeing all those things.
I am looking forward to your pictures and report of your trip.
If you come across some suiseki with real good yoseki it would be lovely if you could take some pictures of it.
Hope you do not mind, i am also curious what your stonedealer-collector would share about yoseki, we could learn from.
Have a good trip.
Sunip

Hi friends

Saddly had my friend, the dealer-collecter retired, and the shop did no longer exist....But a new japanese person has asked me to send suisekiquestions to him...he is not into stones, but he will pass the questions on to hes friend Mr. Matsura, a man who know everything about suiseki.
If anyone of you have questions, please send them to me by pm. and I can ask the question.

This is the 17 stones i brought home this time.....










Some of them will be given a nice long yoseki stay in the garden, as it is clear they can become better in the surface, witch is not, compleetly hard...they all have nice smooth old patina now, except from one.

A few of them are soon ready for a daiza now, as they are hard, and already has nice naturegiven patina.
But no matter what, will they all go in the garden untill they are cleaned.

I found many stones, witch i left behind, as the direction not was clear, or to the backside, or othewise not a wished shape......This is some of the good things about knowing something about japanese suiseki styles....You learn what to bring home, and what to leave behind, even though the stone may look very interesting.

If you are interrested in seeing closeups of some of the stones, please ask....otherwise will i show them, as they go into the daiza.

Some of the stones was found in the Takanogawa, this river comes from the north, and run into Kamo....theese kinds of stones was also found in Kamo.

It was nice to resee the kinds of stones I found last year, and it is also funny, it was compleetely diffrent types of stonematerial I found this time....I did not find a lavastone this time, not even a bad one...and I now see my find of the Sitting Lady as extremly lucky.

Kind regards yvonne

Hello Yvonne,
All this and the stone you bought as well, and not being overweight??
I can see why you picked them up, now the adventure will get a more slow step in cleaning and so on.
I am interested in the little practical things and tricks (not the artificial ones) about yoseki, for instance the material the Japanese are using for rubbing, like brushes, cloth and like. How they use them, how they proceed differently with stones for dry or wet display.
I remember that a long time ago, i red about old and poor Japanese people making a small earning by rubbing stones,
and getting physical problems like repetitive strain injury syndrome, as we now call it.
Thank you,
Sunip

Hello Yvonne,
I see you like the plateau stone shape.
Could you show us this one?
Sunip

Hi Sunip

I tried hard to find other types of shape....humans, or mountains...but ended up with theese. Only two is not doha or dan.
This one is a blend of two types of stone, and will end up being black in the daiza. It stands now 9.5 cm tall.

front

back


Kind regards Yvonne

Some of you know, I was in Kyoto Again, a few days before the Kokufu Ten exhibition.
Went for stonesearch as usual   


This one is small, a very hard stone...soft cornered with a nice direction towards the viewer. 9 cm long 5.5 cm Deep.


This one is standing 16.5 cm long, and 6 cm Deep...all though it is round, does it still have a flat buttom, witch very often is seen on japanese stones....they are put very diffrent together from Danish stones.... I think this one will become Deep Black after a while in the garden, I like the white lines, and the stones owerall direction.
The stone has a nice soft feel to it   

I was not quit sure about this one

The thought of cutting off the lowest 2 kg. crossed my mind...buuut.....The stone, as it is, have a very nice direction towards the viewer...the surface is nice to touch, and will with time become Black, with a lot of iron.
Standing only 14.5 high  14.5 wide, and 7 cm Deep, is it amazing the weight is 3.1 kg.


This doha is quit unusual, look forward to see it in a daiza....16 cm wide, 10 cm Deep.
This stone and the next, is the same kind of stone... I also found one last year. It is very hard, and is often found in Kamogawa....I have not yet seen a suiseki from this kind of stone, only my from last year, and later this, and the next....Does anyone of you know the name of this stone, and can you post Photo of a suiseki?...It should not be mistaken by the slightly softer tigerstriped stone.


I already call this one "Troubled hart"....it reminds me of a person I know...standing 17.5 cm wide, and 7 Deep.
I am planning to let the daiza, give a more hartshape to the stone....Will this one be a biseki?




This Black danseki is the biggest..26.5 cm. wide, and 15 cm Deep. The surface is soft, though hard, with iron showing through, very nice   ....The direction and the sides are very pretty, look forward to have it as a suiseki in my house.

the 7th. and last stone. hard rock, standing 15 cm wide, and 10 Deep.



Kind regards Yvonne

The last stone is now added to the page   

Kind regards Yvonne

um excuse my ignorance im a new bonsai addict now of 2 months and im at my seed planting stage but what have rocks got to do with bonsai?

Hi Dave

"Suiseki, Viewing Stones and Scholars' Rocks" is a forum many visit here on IBC, as a lot of people who like bonsai, also like suiseki as they are called in Japan. I the western World, do we call them viewing stones.
Suiseki has its own story, and thoughts behind....My written english is not really good enough to explain...but I know other people here can...The suiseki moderator  Chris Cochrane can...

Kind regards Yvonne

dave malyon wrote:um excuse  my ignorance im a new bonsai addict now of 2 months and im at my seed planting stage but what have rocks got to do with bonsai?

Welcome Dave. From the earliest beginnings of bringing nature back to one's possession, stones have been an integral part of gardens and bonsai growing. Like bonsai and Penjing, stones took on their own appeal and are prized for their beauty, rarity, and illusion.
Todd

Hi Dave... The appeal of returning conveniently to the feeling arising from direct experience of remote nature is a shared human experience.   Perhaps, it is a feeling of everything is in its right place for a brief moment, and it is very unlike our everyday experience of objectifying the world to bend to our personal needs and gratifications.  

Others have asked about suiseki (or viewing stones) & bonsai being appreciated by the same people.  It was once (over 15 years ago) a very controversial subject on the Internet Bonsai Club discussion group.  When bonsai magazines in the USA began devoting considerable space to suiseki, many were furious.  One Texan on IBC was apoplectic.

Funny now, perhaps... or perhaps not.  In Japan, commerce of bonsai & stones was so interwoven before World War II that they were considered inseparable though bonsai was the principal object in the most public exhibitions. In the 1960s, Nippon Suiseki Association & Nippon Bonsai Association were formed to reinvigorate & maintain traditional Japanese pastimes with support from the Japanese Ministry of Cultural Affairs. Suiseki was exhibited separately & has maintained a separate though close affiliation with the bonsai world.  The leaders in suiseki appreciation are often (but not exclusively) the owners of Japanese bonsai studio-gardens.

"Magical Miniature Landscapes" is the term coined by several-- the author Rolf Stein & the internet's Robert Baran among them-- to examine sub-cultures & art/craft pastimes that have evolved to satisfy the yearning to return to direct experience of an inviting aptness/wholeness of Nature felt through direct experience of a miniature.

Similar feeling can be felt through found or crafted art, seen or felt objects, smells, tastes, & sounds.  Bonsai, suiseki & naturally contoured roots are particularly associated with nature, but not exclusive in that respect.  Extraordinary seashells are seen in Chinese stone exhibitions.  Chinese scholars write of experiencing the universe in the view of a single bloom.  At various times (& in various cultures) a variety of objects draw similar recognizable appeal.

It is reasonable question to pursue why associations form & dissipate.  I wonder the draw of stones & naturally-contoured wood, which is passionately collected in my viewing stone club (Potomac Viewing Stone Group).  

I collect naturally-contoured wood as well as stones for reasons perhaps different than others, and my stone-friends seem to deeply enjoy in sharing both.  Fewer aspire to exhibiting wood, so I imagine not everyone is equally enthralled by both. Two naturally contoured pieces of wood (an extraordinary driftwood from West Virginia & a scholar's object of tree bark from China) are among principal display objects in my stone club's present exhibition at the U.S. National Bonsai & Penjing Museum in Washington DC.  I would treasure either; their owners are each extraordinary in their taste. The exhibition includes 45 stones.

From my latest trip have I brougt 10 stones....

This one is a landskapestone...or is it a sleeping serpent?
One of my new found Kamo's




The birdsview has the nice wanted suisekishape...Also is the direction of the stone towards the viewer very good.

Kind regards Yvonne

The biggest stone I have found so far...A stone I see as a coastal rock. The weight is 7.55 kg.

The first glimse at the hotel

The front

birdsview

backside

when watered...Black hole Black ...hope you like it

Kind regards Yvonne

Very interesting. How is this polishing accomplished? Aging in the garden. Why go to Japan for stones?
Surely they must be everywhere?

Hi elkski

If you show interest in stones, will you soon see stones in difrent parts of the world is not the same.

I do polish some of the stones with a dry cottoncloth.

Join a suisekiclub

Kind regards Yvonne

Our suiseki club had it's beginning with the bonsai club. Still dependent on that relationship, It does an excellent job of organizing shows and stone hunt events.I'd be curious to hear of how many areas have an independent stone club available. Clubs are always a good place to start.