seasonal display 114
*109. Bonsai in multiple-trunk style 115
*110. Harmonious bonding of suiseki and bonsai 115
*111. Rock planting in the root-over-rock style 116
*112. Rock planting in the clinging-to-a-rock style 116
*113. Tray landscape “American Fantasy” 117
*114-*116. Three sections of “American Fantasy” 118, 119
*117-*122. Plant materials and stones used in “American Fantasy” 119-121
*123. Tray landscape created in China 122
*124. Distant mountain stone from the U.S. National Arboretum 122
*125. The Japan Alps 123
*126. Distant mountain stone suggesting glacier 123
*127. Desert formation in the American Southwest 124
*128, *129. Near-view mountain stones suggesting desert formations 124, 125
*130. Mountain stone suggesting peak 125
*131. Object stone suggesting ostrich egg or cantaloupe 125
*132. Distant mountain stone suggesting snowcapped peak 126
*133. Near-view mountain stone suggesting ravines and gorges 126
*134. Thread-waterfall stone 127
*135. Object stone suggesting animal or bird 127
*136. Pattern-stone suggesting tree on rocky promontory 128
137. Keto-bonkei 129
138, 139. Bonseki 130
140. Tools and materials used for bonseki 131
141. Bonseki materials and types of sand 131
142. Distant mountain stone suggesting the Japan Alps 134
143. Waterpool stone and storage-box lid 135
144. Near-view mountain stone on dai 136
145. Distant mountain stone suggesting mountain glacier 137
146. Dry waterfall stone 138
147. Tools for the suiseki collector 140
148. Dry waterfall stone in deep dai 144
149. One-wall dai 147
150. Two-wall dai 147
151. Cutting guidelines for two-wall dai 148
152. Cross section of two-wall dai 149
153. Carving a dai 150
154. Front-view of dai legs 151
155(b), (b). Placement of dai legs 152
156 Underside of dai 153
Map of Japan showing suiseki collection sites 65
Note: In the captions, where specifications of stones and other items are given, measurements have been listed in both the English and metric systems. In the text, measurements are given in only the English system.
Authors’ Note: Throughout the book, we have provided the best available photographs to illustrate the text. In some cases, a particular photograph was a good illustration of a point being discussed, but was less than exemplary from the viewpoint of display. In these cases, we included explanatory or critical comments in the caption. It is hoped that such comments, which are based on principles discussed in Chapter 4, will be helpful to the reader.
Acknowledgments
We would like to express our gratitude to Carol Mandel, Charlotte Mandel, Richard and Dixie Shaner, Raymond Schieber, and Edward Watzik for their help in the preparation of this book. Acknowledgment and sincere thanks are also due to the following for their assistance with the manuscript and for their permission to illustrate various excellent suiseki and bonsai specimens: Sidney Gorlin, Figure 11; Horace and Connie Hinds, Figures 51, 129; Cliff Johnson, Figures 7, 9, 37, 127; Cliff Johnson and James Everman, Figures 53, 59, 64, 105, 107, 148; Cliff Johnson and Anthony Thomas, Figures 40, 50, 52, 126, 128,134; Cliff Johnson and Robert Watson, Figure 130; Keiji Murata, Figures 16, 17, 23, 24, 28-30, 41, 42, 46, 62, 108; Edwin Symmes, Figures 113, 114-116, 117-122, 153; Melba Tucker, Figure 136; Charles Wahl, Figures 25, 27; Robert Watson, Figures 61, 132, 145; Wu Tee-sun, Figures 109, 111, 112, 123; Kanekazu Toshimura, Figures 6, 8, 15, 18, 20, 22, 55, 70, 77, 78, 83-86, 143, 144. Figures 1, 4, and 5 have, respectively, been reproduced by courtesy of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; the Tokugawa Art Museum, Nagoya, Japan; and the Consulate General of Japan, New York.
Foreword
Who among us, when walking along the banks of a river or the shores of a sea, is not drawn to collect stones, be they small pebbles, or rocks just within our carrying capacity. The collecting itself is akin to meditation, for the preoccupations of our busy minds fade away as we focus on distinguishing the minute differences between the stones at our feet. What a moment before was an undifferentiated mass, becomes a community of individuals, each with its own marvelous suchness. Thus begins appreciation. This book is devoted to the Japanese art of appreciating such small-scale stones, known as suiseki.
As the chapter on historical background touches upon, the appreciation of stone has a long history in China, which can be dated back to pre-history and the veneration of jade. Disks and other jade objects constitute one of the important categories of pre-historical artifacts in China. The first term for special stones in Chinese vocabulary, guaishi 怪石 “fantastic stones” appears in a list of imperial tribute dating back to the middle of the first millennium B.C.1 It most likely referred to semi-precious stones like jade, but came to be the general term for stones and boulder-size rocks with unusual attributes. The term itself is instructive, however, because the Chinese taste for stone was marked from the beginning with a predilection for the strange. The prevalence of limestone along Chinese rivers and sea coasts has resulted in the natural production of stone in writhing shapes, full of hollows and holes. These twisted, verging on grotesque, forms have always been the mainstay of Chinese garden design. For more than a thousand years, huge stones of this type have been shipped from one end of China to the other for the creation of “stone forests” and “grottos for immortals.” Fortunes were spent on these enterprises and their owners fretted over the difficulty, despite the enduring quality of stone, to preserve these gardens for posterity. One of the most famous cases of this was Li Deyu (787-850) whose villa at Pingquan outside of Luoyang was legendary for its rock and plant collection. Li Deyu wrote in an exhortation to his descendents, “Whoever sells even one rock or a single plant will not be considered a good offspring of mine.”2 Yet, no sooner had he died than economic and political exigencies forced his descendents to sell off the treasures, including one of his favorites, the “Rock for Sobering Up from Intoxication.” Apparently Li Deyu used to lean against it, as though it were a servant, whenever
