Page 26 - BSAM 2015 Q4

Top left; Wax stone with partly smooth and lustrous surface.
Top right; A wax stone with animated surface texture.
Bottom left; An animal shaped wax stone of intense color on a wood stand with scrolling feet and long legs which raises up the rock.
Bottom right; Di erent kind of chrysanthemum stones are found in China which show slight variations in the shape and sometimes even in the color of their owers. Some are pure white, others are slight yellow or red. In some stones, the stone matrix is carved away to expose more of the owers, a practice not appreciated by purists.
appreciation movement in Europe along with others, publishing his specialist book, Suiseki.
ESA agreed on “Suiseki” as a general term for view- ing stones in 2009 regardless of their origin.
Finding places are in the Ligurian Alps (Italy) where limestones can be found in layers resulting in many stones with a natural at base. e Karpates (moun- tain range in Slovakia) and the river Kameniče in Czech Republic and other rivers in Europe, the Alps of Switzerland, France, Germany, Austria are places
where one can nd di erent kinds of stones suitable for Suiseki.
Mr. Kunio Kobayashi, chairman of the Nippon Suiseki Association gave an interesting talk about Japanese Suiseki on Saturday morning. First he pointed out the ve fundamental criteria for Suiseki: material, shape, color, naturalness, and the choice of the best side for viewing the stone, respective to the display. Japanese prefer intense and dark colors. Completely natural stones are regarded as the best. A Suiseki should be of a size so one man is able to carry it. e overall gracefulness and elegance are important points too. A Suiseki has to have some patina so age can be seen. Only this way it can convey the feeling of wabi and sabi.
According to shape, Suiseki are divided into four categories: landscape stone (mountain, waterfall stones etc.), gure stones, patterns stones and color- ful stones.
24 | BCI | January/February/March 2016