Italian version.

 What is a Suiseki?  A STONE, of course, but naturally no ORDINARY STONE.

The art of Suiseki is an ancient oriental tradition.  Yet a love of stone and the suggestive shapes that nature takes has encouraged the growth of suiseki around the world over the last 50 years.  Naturally, this growth has been influenced by a diversity of vision according to the culture and geographical environment of each population and country.

The word SUISEKI is an abbreviation of the ancient expression:

SAN SUI  JO KEI SEKI, which literally means:

STONE REPRESENTING NATURAL SCENES OF STONE AND WATER.

To become a suiseki a stone must be natural without any human interference and the product of the slow passage of time and nature’s elements.  Evocative shapes, revive moments, sensations, places, a season **** and beliefs inside our imaginations.  In the picture presented everyone can identify personal memories.

I often hear the art of suiseki defined as a refined discipline of slow assimilation.  A speciment of Bonsai sparks a desire to possess one and learn everything there is to know about recreating it.  A beautiful stone, meanwhile, is enhanced by a good Daiza (wood base) or a refined Suiban-Doban ****(pottery or bronze plate filled with sand and water).Yet, all the while it must display certain characteristics in harmony with each other which create a Unique Work of Art: material Structure, Shape, Colour, Balance and Suggestion.  The Suiseki Art heightens the spirit of observation, once receptive to the collective of these five essential components causes their symbiosis to bear the perfect stone.

The Liguria region has reached significant levels of recognition thanks to its acclaimed stones which are easily accessible.  Above all, though, the region owes thanks to the “Unici di Liguria” suiseki club – the first suiseki club in Italy and Europe.  It was founded in 1991 and since pioneered in this evocative art.