Stone of the Month: 

March 2025 

“Cape Kangen”

By Les Allen

This Setagawa-ishi was acquired in November 2024 from Seiji Morimae at S-Cube in Hanyu Japan. Morimae is an important figure in the world of Bonsai and Suiseki, and currently serves on the board of the Nippon Suiseki Association. While visiting S-Cube, Morimae allowed me to view his warehouse where I found this stone and immediately connected with it. 

This Seta River stone was named “Cape Kangen, Cape of the Depressed Boulder” by its previous owner Motoyama Yukio of Osaka. The kanji characters used on the stone's storage box (kiribako) are written in red ink which is uncommon in Japanese practices. The first character describes a narrow depression on the top of the stone. The second character means large rock or boulder, and the last character identifies the stone as a cape or promontory. This stone is 23 cm wide, 7 cm high, and 10 cm deep and is in the personal collection of Les Allen. 

I thank Hiromi Nakaoji, Wil in Japan, and Sam Edge for help with the translation of the box writing, and the history of this stone and its original owner.