2018 5th Japan Suiseki Exhibition

The 5^th Japan Suiseki Exhibition took place on February 14-17, 2018, in the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in Ueno Park. This is the same venue as the Kokufu Bonsai Exhibition on the second floor.

Nippon Suiseki Association Chairman, Kunio Kobayashi welcomes visitors during the opening ceremony.

This year there were:

82 General Exhibits

6 Special Exhibits

32 Tokonoma Displays

1 Guest Entry

17 Foreign Displays

11 Accessory Exhibits

Guest Entry by the Hosokawa School Bonseki titled “Distant View of Fuji”

According to the Nippon Suiseki Association, sponsor of the exhibition:

Suiseki is a genera term referring to a stone that captures the poetic beauty of natural landscape scenery. In a single stone one can sense the whole of the universe, making suiseki among the most spiritual and culturally rich pursuits celebrating the art of nature.

The history of suiseki is said to have begun in the mid-Muromachi period during the 15^th century and its spiritual aspect deepened throughout its connection with Zen Buddhism and the tea ceremony. The pastime of suiseki as it has been passed down to us today became established between the end of the Edo period and the mid-Meiji period in the late 19^th century. A unique literati sensibility toward natural stones and landscape beauty was born in the 18^th century, which later melded with the love of nature’s artistry held by bonsai enthusiasts of the Meiji period, and ultimately became suiseki as we know it today– an ideal expression of Japanese aesthetics.

It is said that the pleasure of suiseki lies in the heart of the viewer. To allow one’s mind to idle in nature, to perceive the whole of creation and Mother Nature’s elegance, to reach the point where one can hear the profound voice of the infinite world in a single stone, suiseki lures us into the subtle realm of yugen the refined hart of the wabi and sabi aesthetics.

In addition to Japan, suiseki were displayed from the Philippines, Italy, Malaysia, England, Czech Republic, Spain, Denmark and the United States. Six stones displayed by Jim Greaves, Larry & Nina Ragle, Ron Maggio, Tom Elias, Paul Gilbert and Wm. N. Valavanis. I was personally honored that my suiseki that I collected in Georgia over 20 years ago was displayed in the main entrance room, third from the front. Mr. Kobayashi displayed my suiseki in an antique Chinese water basin over 200 years old.