Page 35 - Tạp chí bonsai cây cảnh BCI 2016Q4

taxi business and devoted full time to being a stone
dealer and a stone carver. Sakurai worked primarily
with stones from the Abegawa, Ibigawa, and Sagigawa
Rivers, all located in the same general region of Japan.
He told us that there were twenty professional stone
cutters working in this region in the 1960s and 1970s.
At that time, the raw material was abundant and
inexpensive. Today, Sakurai is the last of the major
professional stone cutters. There is another smaller
carving operation on the Ibi River which specializes
in making waterfall stones, and one other dealer who
hand makes a few mainly landscape type stones for
his retail sales table.
Sakurai told us that he has a sales booth each year at
the Kokufu-ten’s Green Club in Tokyo in February and
then at the Taikan-ten in Kyoto in November. These
are his primary venues for retail sales to individual
collectors. He maintains a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy
regarding his stones. He doesn’t talk about working
the stones he has for sale unless someone specifically
asks. He also has some completely natural stones for
sale at his booth.
To learn how he enhances stones, we walked across
to the other parallel building to begin our lessons.
The first area was enclosed on three sides and held a
large sink, cabinets full of tools and stones, and a large
electric grinding machine on the floor. The large sink
was used to determine where to cut stones. This was
accomplished by placing a stone where it could rest
on other stones that were slightly below the waterline.
Sakurai adjusted the stone up or down to obtain the
desired line to cut to have a good hut stone. The cut
line was then marked on the stone and it was taken
to the next room for cutting. Sakurai sits on a chair
in this first room and uses a series of hand chisels to
rough out a hut stone.
Small stones, mainly from the Ibi River, are suitable
for making hut stones with a layer of white stone had already been cut in preparation for turning them Above; Sakurai’s showroom
alternating with darker layers. After obtaining the into landscape stones. We examined these “landscape with various types of stones
shape with cold chisels, he uses an electric grinding stones in progress” and brought one back with us as he sells. He has partially, and in
tool to refine the shape. A little polishing and further a souvenir. many cases totally enhanced
the stones. He is a major
refinement, if needed, yields an attractive hut stone in Sakurai’s sand blasting equipment sat nearby at the supplier of suiseki to several
fifteen to twenty minutes. Because small hut-shaped other end of the same room. This consisted of a large dealers who in turn supply
stones are easily recognized, attractive, and not too air compressor with thick rubber tubing connected to stone collectors in Japan and
expensive, they have been popular with foreign a large box shaped structure. A large metal tubular bin, internationally.
visitors or with Japanese who are new to the art of which held the etching sand, sat above the compressor
stone appreciation. on a heavy metal stand. The actual sandblasting oc-
We took a medium-sized black rock into the next curs inside the box. An exhaust and recycling system
room where Sakurai had a fairly sophisticated large protects the user from fine sand, rock and dust. The
circular bladed electric saw for cutting even large box is also equipped with lights and blocks to hold a
boulders. The blade is diamond coated and running stone in a particular position while it is being sand
water cools the blade and stone during the cutting blasted. The sequence it this: Sakurai places a stone
process. He showed us how his equipment can cut inside the box in the correct position, closes the side
through a medium-sized rock in a few minutes, a bit door, then sits in front of the box and looks inside the
longer for larger stones. Often, he just makes a bottom box through a strong flexible plastic window. A hole
cut, but sometimes he makes a series of shallow to in the plastic window allows him to insert the heavy
deep cuts as his first steps in making nice single-peak tubing through which high volume compressed air
or multiple-peak mountain stones. After the initial and sand make contact with the stone. He can move
cut, he further works the stone with hand-held cutting the hose and nozzle to any position he wants. A se-
and shaping tools. He had a sizeable pile of rocks that ries of different-sized nozzles allow him to select the

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