Stone of the Month: October 2018Kozan
This small Tomanu River stone from Hokkaido has a good mountain shape with sloping sides, rough surface texture on the front of the stone, nice dark colors, a high degree of hardness, and a natural unaltered bottom. It shows all of the features of an excellent stone, yet it is only 14.5 cm wide, 3.6 cm high, and 4.5 cm deep. Stones of this size with relatively flat bottoms are also used in the practice of bonseki where landscape scenes are recreated on a black lacquered board with different sizes of tiny stones, sand, and pebbles.
This stone was collected by Yoshida Yukihiro (artist name Yoshida Bonseki) and is held in a beautifully carved base. He named this stone “Kozan” after a mountain in his native village. This is a fine example of the quality and type of stone held by one of Hokkaido's finest collectors.
