Modern Suiseki

About Toyama-ishi

Toyama-ishi means Distant mountain.

In Kanji, a Chinese character, Toyama is "遠山" and "遠" means distant and "山" is mountain. And "-ishi" means stone, "石". So, Toyama-ishi means Distant mountain stone.

In Suiseki world, people often say:

"Begin with Toyama, end with Toyama".

The meaning of the phrase is that Toyama is good for beginners since the shape of Toyama is simple as mountain, but also for experts.

After Toyoyama, beginners are interesting in other shape Suiseki, such as Doha-ishi, Dan-seki and they learn Suiseki more. And after they learned a lot of Suiseki and became expert, they return to Toyama finally.

I would like to think why Toyama-ishi is so important and considered as key stone in Suiseki.

I feel calmness in my mind when I see Toyama.

Why?

Although the following is my own view, people may see things as bird's-eye image apart from daily life when they see Toyama.

Please see the following photo:

When you walking, five steps ahead is future going now and five steps behind is past walked.

You may think people are not conscious of future or past when walking. However, people predict five steps future to make certain of safety to confirm if there is no dangerous substance.

On the other hand, when you lift up your eyes on distant mountain, how is your conscious going?

Even if you are approaching to distant mountain, the mountain looks going away step by step.

You cannot get to the mountain easily because of the distance. It may be the future from the perspective that you can get to the mountain someday if you are walking continuously.

Or, it may be the past if you see a familiar mount because mountain does not change in the decade unless humanity is involved.

Either way, it is difficult to have temporal sense in distant mountain and you may see the absolute depart from daily life.

Although we are struggling with daily tasks, the sun rises and the moon sets.

When you think of something far away, the cosmos, you may notice that we are worried about something trivial.

From Toyama, I think it help us to release our consciousness from daily tasks.

From this perspective, Doha or Dan-seki seem to be difficult since it requires more technics to see landscape.

Toyama-ishi - Sado Goshiki-ishi

This Sado Goshiki-ishi is quite beautiful Toyama-ishi. It is colorful stone and may be shaved to show its color beautiful.

Toyama-ishi - Kamui Cotan-ishi

This Kamui Cotan-Seki is not perfect Toyama because some portions are recessed. But from another point of view, it may be more like natural mountain.

Toyama-ishi - Shonaigawa-ishi

This Shonaigawa-ishi is my first Toyama-ishi found by myself. I visited river many times to find good Suiseki. However, natural Toyama-ishi is almost not.

Natural Toyama-ishi is very few, especially because of that, Toyama-ishi is popular in Suiseki.