Page 25 - BSAM 2016 Q2

The 3rd Japan Suiseki Exhibition of the Nippon Suiseki Association (NSA) was held on the second floor of Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum from February 9 to 13, 2016. is museum is located at
Ueno park where other museums are located. e National Museum, a science museum, galleries, temples and shrines with a five-storey Pagoda, a peony garden and a zoo can be found within its area, including a lake where you can hire a pedal or row boat. e zoo is very popular for its pandas and other exotic animals.
e opening of the Suiseki exhibition with speeches in Japanese took place in the morning of February 9. As in the previous years all exhibits were
documented by a beautiful catalogue which was produced in advance. So it was possible to purchase a copy of it at the spot. e exhibits were divided into four sections: 5 special entries, 25 tokonoma displays, 102 general entries (with a subcategory of entries from abroad) and 10 Suiseki accessories (display stands/tables, suiban and tenpai). A yer with the name of the exhibitors and the origin of the Suiseki was given to visitors at the entrance. e exhibits had to be subjected to a pre-selection and had to be sent in advance so it was possible to take photographs for the catalogue and to produce it. Instructions of the author and editor-in-chief Mr. Morimae inform the readers that “the tokonoma display and general entry sections are ordered according to Japanese syllabary, though this order has been altered slightly in places for the sake of improving the layout.” e catalogue was edited in only two months including the translation into English by Mr. Peter Warren and Mr. Wil Lautenschlager. e size of the Suiseki and some additional information/comments to each exhibit are given in English.
Entries from abroad came mostly from the United States, six exhibitors were from Europe (Denmark, Germany, Italy and Switzerland) and the others from China, Malaysia and the Philippines.
Top; Main room: tokonoma displays along the walls and two rows in the middle
Middle; two elegant tokonoma displays with two most outstanding Suiseki, a Yase sudachi maguro ishi (49 cm w x 20.5 cm d x 23 cm h) at the right and a Matsumae kotan ishi (84cm w x 41 cm d x 19 cm h)
Bottom; The rst room
was dedicates to Suiseki accessories (display stands, suiban), special entries of Hosokawa School Bonseki (sand paintings) and small Suiseki displayed in wood framed glass boxes.
e exhibition was set up by Mr. Seiji Morimae, Vice president of NSA and his assistants in several rooms which were connected to each other by open passages (without doors) so it was possible to walk unimpeded from one into the other. e rst room was dedicated to Suiseki accessories (display stands, suiban), special entries and small Suiseki displayed
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