WHAT IS A SUISEKI IN VIET NAM?

As you know, “Suiseki” is a combination of two words “Sui” (“Water”) and “Seki” (“Stone”). In the early 1990s, in Vietnaam, when the opening economy starts and when its citizen has not earn for living only, Vietnamese middle class begins to find out hobbies when they are not working such as listening to music, playing tennis, taking a tour etc… And stone viewing gradually grows and becomes bigger. The viewing stone collectors called suiseki as “Da Canh” (“Đá Cảnh”) or “Thach Canh” (“Thạch Cảnh”) and the collectors is called “Ngoan thach nhan” (“Ngoạn Thạch Nhân”).

There are two styles:

“Da Canh Nguyen Ban” (“Đá Cảnh Nguyên Bản”): The stone weathered by water and wind naturally, no change in shape by human.

“Da Canh Che Tac” (“Đá Cảnh Chế Tác”): The stone created abstract shape and polish by human. “Da Canh Che Tac” called as Biseki.

Now, in the springtime, Vietnam has annual “Da Canh Nguyen Ban” contest in Tao Dan Park.

“Da Canh Nguyen Ban” in Vietnam look like suiseki in Japanese about Shape, Colour, Texture, Material and spirit.

Shape: “Thạch Hình” the form of the outer edges or surfaces of the stone. The shape you can see are landscape stone as mountains, mountain ranges… Vietnamese likes it so much.

Colour: Suiseki lovers highly appreciated dark colour (gray to black colours), but brown, purple, green black, and blue black are also interesting and making feel admiration

Texture: words “Văn Thạch”, Bone “Cô Thạch” , Holes “Thạch thấu”, Jagged “Lậu thạch”, Pear’s skin “Da Lê”, The picture creating from milky quartz “Vân thạch” …

Material: hardness is above 5 Mohs, but it should not over 7 Mohs. The more hard the more inflexible on the creating shape by process of weathering by water.

Spirit: “Thạch Ý” is very important that the collector needs to find out. Actually, the shape of the stone can make you find out ideas. We can think that the shape give you ideas, so the shape is spirit of the stone or “Thach Hình” is “Thạch Ý”. Sometimes, collectors are very interested in spending a long time trying to understand what is the meaning of the stone.

Please, get more information in 5 factors section.

Ninh Huu Hiep

(Suiseki lover & collector)