The main thing is that I hope people come to realize that there is no pope or queen anywhere telling people what is okay. What stones you like and how you choose to present them are personal decisions. In Mas’ case these are fundamentally artistic decisions.

Regarding competitions though – I don’t know about that. A competition does imply some set of formal “rules” that everyone agrees to.

If your competition is for recognition of someone’s craft skills as a wood carver then yes, it would make sense to separate cut-stone and uncut-stones into separate categories. They are different levels of difficulty and require different skill sets.

But if the competition is between stones (as opposed to between wordcarvers), then what are the criteria on which they are being judged? Presumably you are applying some set of formal criteria? For example – so many points for color (black gets most points, white gets fewest), so many for adherence to the rules for various shape categories (how well they follow the three-sides rule, how good the kamae is, the location of the peak, etc etc), so many points for material (deducting points for too hard or too soft, recent sharp edges, and so on. Etc. Etc.

In that case, I would think that you’d handle that by simply assigning more points to a “natural” stone than to a cut-stone. And depending on the other qualities of the overall suiseki, the cut stone may very well “win”. After all, a mediocre uncut suiseki is, well, just a mediocre suiseki.

I do think that studying those formal rules is important in learning suiseki (or any art), whether as an artist or as a critic or collector. Formal judging can be an very good learning tool. We do this all the time in our Bay Island Bonsai club as part of our study of bonsai – though we tend to do it as a club exercise, even in making the awards in our yearly show, rather than as a “competition” between people.

Cheers! and thanks from both Mas and me for your thoughtful comments, Janet

José Manuel,
A suiseki, a friend from Spain.

Reading this article, it has made me reflect on a very interesting idea, and that is cut or not cut is more a matter of aesthetics than a question of whether or not to be cut, based on whether the Suiseki is conceived as a modern art or more whether it is conceived from a traditional Zen perspective , tea ceremony, and so on.

I believe that at the end, like everything else in life, depends on the choice of each person, the approach that you want to give, but none is better than another, and that, as the Nakajima says, both tendencies coexist, and although a stone has less value to be cut, they are cut and retouching, in Japan and USA.

I personally have cut all the stones that come from U.S., and aesthetically, they are among the best of my collection.

I believe that we still have much to learn and experience in Spain and that it may even go by seasons and fashions. Today, in my country, it seems that there is a tendency to consider that the stones should not be cut and if they are cut, they will not be exposed.

I think that to allow to cut in a competition is to allow that someone could use some techniques and tools that others can not use because it is not at your fingertips. I think it would be great to make an exhibition of uncut stones and other for stone cut, but all under the same conditions; so that some were not better than others by the mere fact that I can not cut my stone and if the other person can cut .

Can you imagine a race in which cyclists were some bicycles in iron and other bicycles were in aluminum, high-tech?, Certainly they could not compete on equal terms, because this is what I think happens when a Exibition of Suiseki are competing for first prize and some stones are more likely than others simply because not everyone can use the same tools to beautify their stones.

Regards,
Jose Manuel,
A Suiseki, a friend from Spain.
http://groups.msn.com/Suisekis

Your post and further comments come just in time, when there’s now a hot debate in Spain about “to cut or not to cut: that is the question”, but without regards to yin-yang. Of course, I will refer you in trying to balance.
However, I’ve got enriched by the underlying feeling of “-do” flowing from your comments, as I often wonder whether Westerners prefer to talk about rules, criteria, proportions and so no, but forget that most Oriental “arts” are to be developed (lived) within a sense of personal way. Thus, a person may start from cut-stones, and further walking and twisting forward and back uncut stones, and even so, this will be only one within miriads of possible ways to learn from contemplation of stones.
Contemplation of stones: this is the fullness and the emptyness and you are required to no-distraction to fully achieve. When you are in contemplation, you should not be disturbed about whether it is cut or uncut; whether you are pushed to think about it, the stone is not good enough for contemplation.
Thanks, Janet for your inspiration.
Jesus

When we are on tanseki, for every possible stone I find, Mas finds 5 others at least. Part of it is of course his experience. He knows the stones so well, and what the good quality material looks like uncleaned on the river bank. He knows how a well-shaped stone appears when just lying there. So he looks at lots of likely stones, and doesn’t look at ones that are unlikely. I sometimes do kind of the opposite (I have a tendency to let my eye get attracted by flashy color – which is often poor, crumbly material and the color itself will end up bothering). My eye and experience is improving though with every stone (good or bad) that I pick up and look at.

Like you – I often look for something – sometimes smaller stones with flattish bottoms. Sometimes stones for cutting (more prevalent). When I was just beginning years ago I was always looking for doha (easy to find mediocre ones) . But – I’ve been learning not to. I have been learning to do like Mas and just open my mind and eyes and try to just look at each stone for what it is and what is there.

I don’t know if that makes sense? It’s hard to put into words. If you look *for* something, it makes it harder to find what is actually there. At least, that’s my experience.

Also I think for the artist, cut stone suiseki (good ones I mean) are a very good way to develop their artistic eye as well as developing their daiza-making craft and technique. One of our fellow SF Suiseki Kai members is a guy who has an amazing eye at the river. So far he has only made daiza for, and shown, his cut stones. He does very good work (he commonly gets one of the awards at the August exhibit), but has only been doing it for maybe 10 years and does not feel ready to tackle his natural stones. That time will come.

Cheers – Janet

Best Regards,
Mark