Page 31 - Tạp chí bonsai cây cảnh BCI 2016Q3

of his life and his family’s lifelong work in acquiring
and processing stones for the bonseki and suiseki mar-
kets. His father, Sakai Sahichi, started collecting stones
from the Nagara River and later, from the Ibi River
to sell along with his bonsai in the late 1880s in Gifu.
A small group of bonsai and stone enthusiasts were
buying these stones except during a period after the
1891 earthquake struck Gifu.
Sometime between 1891 and 1907, Sakai Sahichi
and Sakai Sasuke, his first son, began to work stones
because they did not sit well. At first, they removed
pieces from the bottom of the stones so they would be
more stable. The Sakai family sold many stones at an
exhibition held in Tsu City in Mie prefecture in 1907.
According to Sakai Teikyo, this event made Ibi River
stones famous throughout Japan. As a result, by the
Taisho era (1912-1925), more stone dealers opened
shops in Gifu and along the Ibi River.
In 1924, Sakai Kanhichi, second son of Sakai
Sahichi opened Gaseki-en, a stone shop in Tokyo,
to sell more of his Ibi River stones. Kanhichi and his
younger brother Teikyo travelled to Kuze Village in Ibi
County where they met Mr. Yojuro, a stone collector
who had been collecting a two-tone type of stone from
the Ibi River. This stone had a narrow light band—a
nearly white layer of stone—near thicker layers of dark
gray to black stone. The Sakai brothers started making
wonderful and very realistic mountain suiseki from
this material. They called these stones Yojuro-ishi.
There is no record that the stone collector Yojuro ever
carved this type of stone to make his own mountain
stones. The stones sold well and the Sakai brothers
ordered larger quantities of the two-tone stone from
Yojuro. This gave rise to the Yojuro stone type, one
that is recognized in suiseki manuals and displayed in
major exhibitions today. Later stone carvers copied
the Sakai’s family’s work, but few could ever match the
fine craftsmanship of a Sakai mountain suiseki.
Sakai’s business continued to grow when he was
asked to provide stones to other bonsai nurseries.
In 1931, Teikyo purchased a large cutting machine by Murata Keiji, a leading professional bonsai and Top; The Ibi River in Shizuoka
to enable him to meet the demand for stones used stone specialist. is a tributary of the larger
as bonseki and suiseki. Bonseki is an art form that Different steps in cleaning stones—making them Kiso River. Its broad channel
used small stones up to 18 cm (7 inches) with white shiny by using a cloth, polishing techniques, adjust- with numerous extensive
deposits of gravel, cobbles,
sand to make a temporary landscape scene on a black ment of the bottom of stones, and the removal of softer small to large boulders, makes
lacquer oval or rectangular tray. This was a popular portions of stones—were all subjects presented in the it an ideal place to search for
art form with several schools that declined sharply 1966 book, How to Cultivate and Polish Suiseki, edited suiseki.
after the major collapse of the Japanese economy in by Murata Keiji. Inoue Toshihiko, who contributed a Bottom; This Ibi River stone was
the late 1980s. This coincided with a steady decline in chapter in this book about modifying stones, wrote collected by Mr. Yojiro in the
the number of Japanese collectors purchasing bonsai that he was providing assistance to collectors by pre- 1930s and was then made into
a classical Japanese mountain
and suiseki. senting approaches to the modification of stones in range with a single tall peak.
The 1960s was a period of rapid growth in the order to reveal the interest and the beauty of stones. This stone carver was probably
numbers of people collecting and displaying stones He was advocating expanding the horizon of viewing Sakai Teikyo. In Japan, this
in Japan. Concurrent many new suiseki clubs were stones by adding abstract suiseki. stone and other similar stones
established, as was the Nippon Suiseki Association Enhancing stones to make suiseki was not limited to are given the name Yojiro-ishi
rather than Ibigawa-ishi.
in 1961. Numerous books were published and peri- Ibi, Seta, Saji and Abe river stones, but a much wider
odicals started to help inform new stone enthusiasts range of stones were modified. A list of 29 different
about this fascinating hobby and art form. These stone types from as many areas was listed in Appendix
were primarily books for stone hobbyists written by 2 in Inouye Yoshio’s 1966 book How to Appreciate and
fellow hobbyists, while others were written or edited Take Care of Suiseki. The common name, geological

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