Modern Suiseki

True Black Stone is not black

In Suiseki, black stone is called Maguro-ishi. It means True Black Stone and also, tuna. (It is some kind of a word play.)

Therefore, if saying True black stone is not black, it does not make sense usually.

What I want to say here is True black stone is not black from the beginning, especially in river side.

Of course, there are black stones in river side in nature. However, they are usually not hard enough for Suiseki.

Hard stones suitable for Suiseki are usually whitish black which means gray in river side. Because surface of hard stone is rough in nature although it is broken in case of soft stone.

So, if you would like to find True black stones suitable for Suiseki, attempting to find black stones in river side sometimes will fail.

You should not try to find black stones only but gray stones in river side.

Let's see an actual stone.

Shonaigawa-ishi

This stone is Shonaigawa-ishi with Nashiji surface, gray colors.

Please see the protruding parts. They are black after rubbing with a dry cloth and smoothen rough surface. The black portion is the original color of this stone.

The true charm of Youseki, which means treating stones tenderly in Suiseki, is turning back to the original condition of stones by smoothen rough surface.

It has a subtle charm to find the original condition of stones by smoothen rough surface.