Page 34 - BSAM 2016 Q4

Top left; Mr. Sakurai Toshio has been one of Japan’s foremost stone carvers and a leading supplier of enhanced stones in Japan for over 40 years. One of his specialties is the manufacturer of hut stones. He is also a stone dealer
at the major events each year in Tokyo and Kyoto. Now 81 years old, he is preparing to close his business.
Middle left; This building is his show room lled with hundreds of di erent types of stones for sale. Bottom left; This building is his workshop where he manufactures suiseki ranging from small hut
stones to large scenic landscape stones.
literati to the general population. is can be called the “period of popularizing suiseki.” Several journals were started for the growing number of stone clubs throughout Japan. Many of these clubs held their own local or regional exhibitions and some participated in the annual major exhibition—Meihen-ten—held annually at the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo starting in 1961. is period was also a time of major economic expansion as Japan was investing heavily in their industries and infrastructure.
Sakurai’s showroom, a large rectangular-shaped building, contains shelves lined with different examples of natural and enhanced suiseki. These stones are available for sale to individual domestic and international collectors. Sakurai is a major wholesaler who also supplies other dealers with quality landscape, waterfall, hut stones, and other Japanese stones. Sakurai has been making various sizes of hut stones to sell directly to the public and also to sell to dealers. He has been doing this for approximately four decades. It was then that we realized that we were talking with the person who made the rst Japanese stone we ever purchased, a small hut stone, approximately twenty years ago. Many of the stones on display have been enhanced in one way or another by Sakurai. Some were completely manufactured, others have been cleaned and polished by sand blasting, and others have been carved or shaped by removing portions of the rock to create a scenic stone.
As we sat on two old couches drinking tea and talking, Sakurai talked about his life and his role in Japanese stone appreciation. He was open, detailed, and we believe, honest. Sakurai was more relaxed on our second visit and eager to answer a long list of questions. When he first began buying and selling stones, he would occasionally take a stone to someone else to have the bottom cut. He found this to be expensive and decided to buy his own cutting equipment. He was familiar with several others who were buying stones and making suiseki. He quit his
32 | BCI | October/November/December 2016