Potomac Viewing Stone Group- All Things Suiban

received recently by PVSG members...

The next Potomac Viewing Stone Group(PVSG) meeting will be held from 1 - 4 p.m., Sunday, July 19, 2009, in the auditorium of the US National Arboretum. Our main topic will be "All Things Suiban". We will discuss what stones are appropriate for suiban, stone placement in the suiban, and how to pick the best suiban for your stone. Also, what are doban? Suiban require sand, so we will discuss what colors and grain size are best, what is appropriate for different stones and how to best finish off the sand for display. Some bonsai pots can occasionally be used for suiban, so we will talk about that. How to use accent plant/items with suiban. Both suiban and sand are somewhat hard to obtain, so we will give some locations for their purchase and make some suggestions for obtaining good sand. If you have one or more suiban, we hope you will bring them to the meeting. Also bring stones you would like to try out in a suiban (play in the sand)...<SNIP>...

I recently saw a pair of doban advertised in Japan, almost indistinguishable except for their size (one 67cm. in length & the other 76cm.) Are these primarily for mounting bonsai on Ibigawa stones, display of individual suiseki or both?

Chris,
Those must be the "Boundless space" models, very nice.
They may be the only way you will be able to properly display those 'River Monsters"
you like to collect!

Mark

Hi Mark... Great to hear from you. I thought of purchasing one but decided they look too heavy for an individual stone. At over 20 kg each, they are massive!

Massive Japanese stones are typically displayed in trays that look surprisingly light. There are examples at the U.S. National Arboretum, and hopefully the staff will allow us to borrow those for discussion. The Arboretum's "Night Moon Viewing" stone (a biseki in mountain-shape) was illustrated in the single color fold-out of a 1965 Japanese suiseki dictionary in a vast, shallow suiban with very thick walls, blue-color & containing no sand.

A suiban of perhaps greater width, but with lighter walls, holds the Bicentinenial gift waterpool stone at the National Arboretum-- see Figure 49 in the Covello/Yoshimura text where 'left' & 'right' sides reversed in several photos. In Figure 39 from the Covello/Yoshimura text, the Mt. Hakkai stone is shown in a much lighter doban (bronze tray) of the same double-walled, pierced-fylfot wall design as seen above. A rectangular doban of similar double-wall, pierced-fylfot style is shown in the Suiseki: Art Created by Nature series edited by Kin'ichi Yoshimura; the example there by the famed Hirado Houn has a shortened outer wall, which makes it appear exceptionally shallow & light in mass.

I imagine it is the depth & massiveness of trays (or daiza) required to hide natural bottoms of northern California river suiseki that encouraged cutting by early Japanese-American sensei, there. Glenn Reusch has a massive serpentine stone which he will attempt to display in a tray at the meeting. With lots of trays, I'm hoping he'll find the right match.

Under what circumstances is a traditional or modern Chinese stone displayed in a tray?