By Sam and Kathy Edge

This Furuya stone is a fine example of a small stone (14 x 7.5 x 4 cm) that conveys to the viewer a distant mountain. The stone has great character, movement and lovely thread waterfalls. It has ideal “shun”—surface texture (creases or wrinkles)—that the great Furuya stones have. This diminutive stone has wonderful visual width, height, and depth and appears as a vast mountain range.

The prior owner Tanimoto Hyakusui, a great authority on Furuya stones from Wakayama, gave the formal name “Yayoijin” to this suiseki. A direct translation means the last day of the third month of the lunar calendar. The more poetic meaning is the last day of spring. The word Yayoijin is used in Haiku poetry, and in the case of the stone it refers to the fine waterfalls, caused by the end-of-season melting of the once snow-covered peaks. There is much to see in this small but expressive suiseki.

The daiza was not carved by Tanimoto, which was often the case for his stones. Of special interest to us is that Tanimoto was Koju Suzuki’s teacher for daiza making. Suzuki was the leading daiza maker following Tanimoto. The daiza for Yayoijin was carved by a person using the “Fune” mark which translated means boat. All that we know about this carver is that he was one of the top daiza carvers in the Tanabe area from the 1960s-1980s.

A Furuya that excels in visually expressing such a vast mountain range in such small dimensions is quite a rare find.