Thank you

CC ALIFORNIAALIFORNIA A A ISEKIISEKI K K AIAI Volume 33, Issue 11 November 2015

We are unbelievably fortunate in so many ways! Not only do we have a fantastic team of volunteers who make our club meetings and our annual show such a huge success, but we also have a “Secret Santa” who keeps us fully loaded. Most recently said Santa, aka Ralph Johnson, gave Aiseki Kai cartons of books about viewing stones which we will be sharing at our January party. Ralph has always been the “book man” and now he has passed that mantle onto Aiseki Kai!

For the first time, Golden State Bonsai Federation went all out showcasing viewing stones this year at their convention in Riverside. In addition to a trip to the Yuha, led by Marty Hagbery, there was a seminar on the display of stones in suiban given by Nina and me, a seminar by Sean Smith on Japanese suiseki exhibits as well as multiple stone critiques by Jim Greaves. Jim also presented a seminar on his unique style of displaying stones. The highlight of the convention, however, for those of us who love stones, and for those for whom the art of viewing stones is new, was Jim’s amazing exhibit of thematic displays. Indeed, for some newcomers Jim’s exhibit was a profoundly transformational educational experience. We witnessed one man who was moved to tears.

GSBF also memorialized Harry Hirao in a touching display of his tree and rock hunting gear.

~Larry Ragle

This year’s list of program presenters are so appreciated! Thank you Richard Turner, Juneu Kim, Wanda Matjas, Paul Harris and Larry Ragle. Thank you newsletter contributors Rick Klauber, Ralph Bischof, Wil, Richard Turner, Glenn Reusch, Edd Kuehn, Candace Key, Juneu Kim, Wanda Matjas and Paul Harris. Our newsletter committee (Jim Greaves, Larry Ragle, Linda Gill and Flash Partch) are the best and they make sure our newsletters are the best as well. Thank you Janet Shimizu and Phil Hogan for keeping us refreshed. Thank you, Marty Hagbery for guiding us into the desert. And thank you, Ralph Johnson, for supporting everything we do!

Huntington Show Huntington Show Schedule of Events Dec 22 - set up day. We will pick up table covers and backdrops at our storage shed at 9:00. Come help us. Table and backdrop set up will follow. We need you!

Dec 22 - Bring your displays at noon on 12/22. Bring bonsai and complementary plants for set up. Take plants home; return them 12/26 by 9:30.

Dec 26 - Jan 3 -show opens at 10:30 and closes at 4:30. Closed Jan 1. Jan 3 - Take down at 4:30.

Please sign up for security / docent duty! See page 11 for the schedule. Check your calendar, select the times you will be available to help and call or email Linda Gill with the dates and times. We need you! Exhibitors: Serving as a docent is a must. We need all members including non participants! Kit Blaemire needs your label information. Please refer to page 11 for labeling instructions. Kit also needs to know if you are planning a multiple piece display for the perimeter. The absolute deadline for labels is Thursday, Dec 10. Don’t wait! Call Kit: 213-445-7211 or email her: blaemire@gmail.com. Limit 5 displays per person (thematic displays count as one) ~space available, curator’s choice.

~Nina

SAME DAY

Appreciation

Many of his bonsai, suiseki, pots and suiban were up for auction. The high bidders got to take home some Hirao history.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Please contact Linda Gill to provide for docent/security (see page 11 for the schedule). We need a minimum of 8-10 folks at all times. You will need your club badge to get in free. Contact Linda if you need one. Kit Blaemire, our label maker, has a difficult job. Please do not keep her waiting with your label information. The deadline is Dec 10. Each label will be 3 lines consisting of the designation, source and exhibitor. (See page 11 for details) We will set up and make our initial stone placement on Tuesday, Dec 22. Please be prompt and make life easy for everyone by delivering your displays on time, which is noon on Dec 22!

The 1 inch wide inner m

argins are designed for use with a 3 hole punch.

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After you unload your displays in front of the Botanical Center, you must move your car to the visitor’s parking lot. You can return to the Center directly without going through the ticket gate. Marty Hagbery talked about our plans for the Yuha trip. Ralph Johnson is providing the adult beverages and pizza for the Yuha party. Thank you!!

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October Meeting Notes by Linda Gill

Ron Maggio of Webster, NY sent this pattern stone of Snoopy. 4.5 x 6.5 x 3

John Bleck of Goleta CA sent this ghostly shaped stone from the Yuha. 3 x 2.5 x 2

Janet Shimizu’s pig shape from Garnet Hill. 11 x 6.5 x 3

STONE OF THE MONTH: (monkeys or any animal shaped or animal pattern stone) Sizes are in inches, width x height x depth (We didn’t get any monkeys….)

Bruce McGinnis’s lion lying on a boulder 8 x 6 x 5

Larry Ragle’s dragon from Garnet Hill 5 x 3 x 2.75

Phil Chang’s dog 2 x 3.5 x 2

Emma Janza’s gorilla 3.5 x 5.5 x 2

Brent Wilson’ ghost 5 x 10.5 x 3

We always enjoy participation from our long distance members. It’s easy. Just email a picture of your stone of the month along with its dimensions and perhaps the source or any other information you would like to include. John Bleck and Ron Maggio sent their stone of the month (see below).

Reserve the date: January 27th is our holiday party!

About fifteen years ago, my wife took me to Abalone Cove, a beach on the Palos Verdes Peninsula south of Los Angeles. We found the rock formations and the pebbles to be unusually beautiful. I picked up a few stones that I found particularly appealing for some reason and took them home. Some time soon after, I returned and spent hours selecting rocks to collect, leaving little piles along the beach. Then more time was spent making excruciating decisions about which ones to discard - it is an arduous climb up a steep cliff from the beach to the car. I took photos of individual pebbles, large rocks, and rock formations, perhaps as a compensation or alternative way to collect them. Although all of this was unsystematic and driven primarily by pleasure—the inherent pleasure of the beach, and the growing pleasure of looking closely at rocks for hours on end—at some point I realized I was drawn to the stones, or that they were calling me. In 2010, we replaced the front lawn with a xeriscape and I began placing stones in the newly opened space. Having studied and written about Simon Rodia’s Watts Towers of Los Angeles for years, I had told my wife that when we bought our house I wanted to create an ongoing project. It wasn’t long before I realized that playing with rocks in the garden was becoming that project. The element of play has never left the Petriverse; the challenge is to be ludic but remain lucid; to be ludic without becoming ludicrous. What began as putting out some of my favorite finds gradually evolved into trying to design appealing configurations of stones and writing brain-teasing messages with rocks. At the same time, I began reading about rocks and gardens, and ideas I gleaned from Japanese rock gardens, Chinese stone veneration, environmental/ecological art or earthworks, and sundry other sources began to creep into the garden in covert fashion. This work was a process of invention, a discovery of aesthetic pleasures, a carving out of quiet time. At some point, I named the garden “The Petriverse of Pierre Jardin” and created a blog in order to document and write about it. The photos you saw were taken from the past five years and were intentionally not presented in any particular order. The Petriverse of Pierre Jardin is something more than just a rock garden but it is certainly not a formal art work. It does exhibit several definitive features of outsider art environments: it is an organically evolving site (no formal plans); it is both never finished and always complete; it expresses a

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quixotic spirit and appears impulsive or spontaneous; it is constructed on personal property and work on the site fuses with daily life in its creator. So, the Petriverse is an outsider art environment of a particular kind, a rock garden. And since I am a scholar of sorts, an English professor, it could technically also be called a scholar’s garden. So now I think of it as a middle class suburban version of the elite and expansive Chinese literati gardens; perhaps in the end the Petriverse could be classified as an ‘outsider scholar’s garden.’0- 200 More seriously though, I think of all my work (collecting rocks, displaying them, researching and writing about them) as an apprenticeship to stone. An apprentice has mentors and learns from experts. I am fortunate to have found this group and to be learning from other rock collectors and scholars. An apprentice also learns by doing; I’m learning about rocks by collecting and working with them. My eye for stones is becoming more discerning, as my mind accumulates experiences from embodied encounters with specific stones. Essentially, over time, looking at, touching, moving, and thinking about stones deepens the body and mind’s relation to stone in general. You feel stones as you look at them, developing lithic intimacies in the process. As a quick aside, the most inspiring, literal, committed apprenticeship to stone I know of is Giuseppi Penone’s project “To Be River”: Penone chose a boulder from the bottom of a river, and then returned to the site and chose a larger boulder that he carved into an exact replica of the first stone. He has done this several times; the resulting installations simply pair boulders on a floor with a dry streambed. Drawing on my exposure to different philosophies, spiritualities, and contemplative practices, I have developed a routine for working on the Petriverse. Each day begins as a composition of place. I take a moment to breath and quiet my mind before entering the space; I move slowly through it, pausing to touch stones and think about the processes from which these rocks emerged. I visually and manually trace the patterns on the rocks and the patterns made by placing rocks. Composing place in the Petriverse also induces reflections on the relations between rocks and other material around them - the living tissue of plants, the wood of trees and bark, and so on. Contemplation becomes environmental tuning, becoming attentive to the forces flowing through materials, becoming aware of how the environment changes with each movement through it. Contemplation and composition go hand in hand: contemplating stones leads to composing with them, moving them and making new things. Idea and

0

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October Program Notes

continued on page 7

By Paul Harris

In North America, early attempts at making daiza were (and early attempts still are) often ill-informed, ill-conceived and/or poorly executed: their design, carving and/or finishing falling short of satisfactorily complementing the quality of the stone being shown. In other instances, even admirable daiza may suffer severe damage or surface degradation. What to do? In days past, upon obtaining a mounted stone from a previous collector, I seldom hesitated to reshape, re-sand or refinish those daiza I considered to be substandard, but over time, my approach has evolved to being more respectful to the original, where possible (and tolerable) limiting myself to judicious reconditioning such as blending out scratches or applying a wax top coat to rejuvenate a coating. If you encounter an original daiza that is beyond rejuvenation or just plain bad in your eyes, my first recommendation would be to replace it with a new one while retaining the original as historic documentation. (It is worth remembering that many of the most famous suiseki in Japan are still exhibited in their earliest documented modes of presentation, even though the displays would be considered ill-chosen and rejected by today’s aesthetic taste.) If you do decide to make major modification to an original daiza, make the effort to photograph the original and keep a record with the stone. On an institutional level, replacement and retention of the original provides practical flexibility with respect to organizing future exhibits. For instance, the well-known Northern California collector, Frank English, made his daiza out of cherry wood that he often stained a distinctive bright red. One can accept or disagree with his choice of color, but that was his taste. Thus, in an exhibit with an historical focus, one would want to use his original daiza. However, if the stone were to be incorporated into a display in which the historical connection was not relevant, such as one of several stones included within one of my multi-stone thematic arrangements, the original bright red daiza would introduce a discordant note; thus, a darker, more subtle color would prove more compatible. For my taste, an even more striking discordance occurred while

PAGE 4 CALIFORNIA AISEKI KAI VOLUME 33, ISSUE 11

attempting to integrate some fine stones collected by Steve Yong into my exhibits. Following a popular Korean seosuk practice, Steve mounted many of his stones on highly glossed, light-colored oak bases.

In some cases I did replace his daiza, but at the time, the logistics of replacing Steve’s often massive, more elaborate bases were too daunting, so I compromised by retaining his expressive designs, while refinishing to reflect my own more subdued taste (see page 5). More casually, I confess to routine refinishing of cheap, commercial bases from China.

Ask GuyJim Dear Readers, Following up on my May comments (CAK Newsletter, Vol.33, Issue 5, pgs 4-6 ) with regard to the desirability of preserving and/or documenting any evidence of observable surface treatments by original collectors, I am returning to the subject of saving historical information because a similar situation often arises when dealing with original daiza.

GuyJim

Yamagata-ishi Thomes Creek, CA, Frank English (AVSRC) 9 1/2" W x 4" H x 4" D (24.1cm x 10.2cm x 10.2cm) Cut This is not the brightest red of Frank’s daiza, but representative.

‘Gentle Giant’ Eel River, CA, Steve Yong (AVSRC) 36” This original blond daiza would be disconcerting within an exhibit of otherwise traditional daiza; the daiza was later refinished with a darker tone.

CALIFORNIA AISEKI KAI PAGE 5 VOLUME 33, ISSUE 11

Documentation of Stones in Suiban Usage and Formal Displays:

From one perspective, it might be said that the ‘presentation’ of the stone is the ‘art’ of suiseki. A given stone might always be shown within a specific suiban, but with different orientations, or, conversely, within different suiban. A stone on a daiza might be shown with varying tables, jiita or complementary elements such as accessory figures, bonsai or scroll – each imparting a different interpretation. Because our displays are potentially variable, photographic

documentation is advised to preserve the intended vision of the person creating the display. Again, without documentation the stone will remain the same stone into the future, but your vision or inspiration – your ‘art’– will not necessarily travel with it. Without proper documentation, when there is no daiza or it has been inadvertently separated from the stone (below) a suiseki may be easily ‘lost’. (For this reason it is a good practice to record matching identification on both the daiza and the bottom of the stone where possible.) The very innate ‘ordinariness’ of a simple classic suiseki makes it vulnerable, even

Human-shaped Stone Oceanside, CA, Steve Yong (AVSRC) 2 3/4" W x 7 3/8" H x 2 1/4" D (7cm x 18.7cm x 5.7cm) original (left) refinished (right)

“Genesis: 1:4” Abstract Pattern Stone, Kings River, CA Steve Yong (AVSRC) 12" W x 10" H x 7 1/2" D (30.5cm x 25.4cm x 19.1cm) original (above) refinished (upper right)

Locomotive, Mojave Desert, CA, Elmer Uchida, Approx. 8” W Collection of Joan Watanabe

After Elmer’s death, I was assisting his family sort through his garage when in a mixed box of ‘stuff’ I spied this daiza that Elmer carved to represent a railroad track and ties. Having participated in small community shows with Elmer, I recognized it as the daiza for his locomotive stone. After considerable searching, I located the stone mixed in with numerous inconsequential stones on a secluded shelf in his backyard from where it, unquestionably, would have been discarded. Instead, reunited with its daiza it was recognized and retained as a family favorite.

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likely, to be overlooked and discarded by family members – or by unknowing institutional personnel at some future date. If the suiseki resides in the backyard rather than on a shelf, the chances of dismissal are multiplied geometrically: I have witnessed a backyard full of highest quality Kern River stones from the 1960’s and early 70’s (before the flood that destroyed the best collecting area) being stubbornly retained by the collector’s heirs to keep the yard ‘as is’ for the sale of the house – the irony being that the yard was a barely landscaped, overgrown rock pile that was almost assured of being quickly cleared out by new owners in any case! There is a Japanese suiseki practice that often strikes Westerners as a redundant, even inexplicable waste of time: often collectors will make a daiza for water-related stones that likely, perhaps only, will be displayed in a suiban, e.g., a distinctive coastal rock. [Note that in some cases the suiseki may be suitably shown in a suiban in summer (cooling effect) or on its wood daiza (warming effect) in the winter.] However, the combination of stone plus daiza unequivocally

The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens

Brody Botanical Center, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, California

8:00–9:30 Early Bird Registration for Bonsai / Suiseki-Club Members Only: Pancake breakfast available.

8:00–5:00 Extensive Bazaar Area: Select vendors selling top-quality tools, viewing stones, pots and trees (raw material to display-ready); masterpiece trees on display.

8:00–5:00 Bonsai Exhibit: By the Orange County Bonsai Society and Orange Empire Bonsai Society.

10:00-11:30 Guided Tours: Led by Jim Folsom, Director of The Huntington Botanical Gardens.

10:00–2:45 Demonstrations: Initial training and advanced styling techniques by experts.

states: suiseki. The existence of the custom daiza establishes that this is a suiseki, not just a rock. Similarly, it is imperative that you choose to make a daiza and/or carefully document your ‘suiban’ stone – and in both cases, your formal displays – or knowingly accept the reality that your personal 'vision' of the stone, even the stones themselves, will eventually be lost. Whether or not it matters is up to your own philosophy. From a Zen perspective one easily argues that such concerns are irrelevant, perhaps even unbecoming, but I would argue that such documentation might enable someone in the future to open their eyes and even share your perception.

11:30-1:30 Lunch: Hotdogs and hamburgers available.

2:00-2:45 Dr. Earth: Organic Fertilizer Seminar. Saturday only.

3:00-4:30 Daily Benefit Drawing & Live Auction: Demonstration and donated viewing stones, trees, pots, tools and more.

TBA: Behind the Scenes Tour of The Huntington Bonsai Nursery – Led by Ted Matson, Curator of the GSBF Collection at The Huntington, Sunday only.

For updates, check their website: www.gsbfhuntington.com

The views expressed in this column are personal, perhaps irreverent, irrelevant or just plain wrong and do not reflect the consensual view of California Aiseki Kai. Send your viewing stone questions (or comments) for GuyJim to jimreaves@roadrunner.com or 1018 Pacific Street, Unit D, Santa Monica, CA 90405 or call (310) 452-3680

GuyJim

Bonsai-a-thon XX February 27-28, 2016

Please help support the Southern California Bonsai and Viewing Stone Collection at The Huntington. They have always been there for us…. We need to be there for them!

NEWS FLASH: We anticipate a sale/auction of important pieces from the Ralph Johnson Collection. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity!

Details are being worked out….

action, thought and physical gesture, are difficult to differentiate when in this mode. The Petriverse becomes an intensive field of energies, and stones become potentials, nodes in axes of forces. The stolid stability of stones is replaced by the contingency of their configuration. Arrangements are made through awareness, and awareness is itself a flow, a continuously changing envelope where each step and each view brings one to the brink of a possible gesture, a decision to move something, to create a new set of relations. The Petriverse is a recombinant matrix; the same elements are constantly reconfigured and new ones are introduced, in a fluid, incremental process. This contemplative practice makes the Petriverse a “Slow Time Zone” where very particular kinds of thinking can happen. Sustaining an attentive gaze and grasp on stones, absorbing their surfaces and textures, one becomes absorbed by the stones as well. The more still and open one becomes, the more vibrant or resonating the stones become. Time passes without being felt - one enters a sort of aporia, an ongoing and increasingly empty moment, into which all kinds of insights, ideas, and temporalities can enter. The composition of place becomes a decomposition of time. It is actually the slowest kind of time that enables the quickest and deepest types of insight to occur. I think here of Gaston Bachelard, a 20th century French philosopher, and his notion of the “poetic instant.” Bachelard calls the poetic instant a “phoenix flash” in which cosmic time traverses personal time. Bachelard says, “When these flashes of fire, lightning or flight surprise us in our contemplation, they appear to our eyes as heightened, universal moments—not so much ours as given to us, moments which mark the memory and return in dreams, retaining their imaginary dynamism. We might term them, in fact, phoenixes of reverie.” One cannot create such experiences, but they are more likely to occur when one is in a contemplative state of mind, and wired intensively into a particular environment. I realize that I am by no means alone in having powerful, epiphanic, even spiritual experiences while engaged in mindful contemplation of stones. I’m sure many if not all of you have had these numinous experiences, moments that glow with beauty and peace. The 20th century French scholar and writer Roger Caillois has described this kind of experience quite poetically. Caillois collected unusual stones and minerals and ruminated on them; you can see some of his collection at the Natural History Museum in Paris. He records that in looking at stones “I allow myself to slip into thinking how so many enigmatic marvels were

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formed … I struggle to picture them in my mind at the burning moment of their genesis. There then comes upon me a sort of quite special excitement. I sense myself taking on something of the nature of stones. …. Between the stone’s stillness and the mind’s effervescence is established a kind of current where for a moment, a memorable one indeed, I find wisdom and comfort. I might almost see the possible germ of an unknown and paradoxical kind of mysticism. Like others it would lead the soul to the silence of half an hour, it would cause it to dissolve in some inhuman immensity. But that abyss would not be divine, it would even be all matter and only matter, active, turbulent matter of lava and fusion, earthquakes, orgasms and great tectonic ordeals; and motionless matter of the longest quietude.” (pp. 90–1) Caillois’s words are intriguing on many levels, but it strikes me that the intimacy he registers with stones comes exclusively through visual experience and then the use of his very active imagination. Contemplating stones while composing with them is a very different kind of intimacy than the one Caillois describes, even if similar ideas come through both processes. This thought brings out a more general contrast that could be drawn between the relation to stones in composing the Petriverse versus different traditions of viewing stones. Viewing stones are prized for being individual natural objects worthy of special attention; they become viewing stones when they are extracted from the environment, possessed by a person, and mounted on a daiza or placed in a suiban. They become fixed or static aesthetic objects, valued for particular qualities, such as Mi Fu’s four characteristics or the qualities of viewing stones identified in North American stone appreciation: overall impression, creativity (stone plus base), shape, color, texture, material, base. Such qualities are intrinsic to the stone. In the Petriverse, some specific stones are singled out for special attention, but they usually figure primarily as components in configurations in the garden’s dynamic field. When I work with selected stones, I am not choosing them for their particular qualities as much as I am working with what I would call their overall SENSE. The sense of a stone is partly created by its qualities (shape, texture, etc), but sense is also always dependent on context. While a stone ‘has’ qualities (shape, etc), a stone does not ‘have’ a sense—its sense only exists in relation to other things, and it changes with each encounter. The viewing stone’s qualities remain constant and its envelope is its base or suiban; the sense of each stone in the Petriverse is context-dependent and always changing; one could say that the stone becomes a different stone as it moves around and enters into new relations.

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October Program Notes continued from page 3

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I encounter the sense of stones most intimately when stacking them. Balancing stones is something of a dance, a tactile interplay among human and lithic bodies in contact with one another. Stacking stones forces one to focus on the symmetries or balanced aspects of a rock, to be sure, but also to look for its irregularities, little nubs or concavities, because that is where you will find a point of balance; and so a dumb rock, a mute thing of static stuff, starts to swarm with nuances, exceptions, singularities. Simultaneously, the focus shifts between examining individual rocks and searching out potential relations between stones; zones of contact become as palpable as the individual bodies. George Quasha, in his magnificent book Axial Stones, succinctly states that in balancing rocks, the “field is at least as alive as the entities within it” (45). This field includes the person working with stones; Quasha calls the field “a worked space—an intentional state of awareness in which something unpredictable occurs: a unique event resulting in what seemingly embodies its origin and yet itself is original. At once unchanging and nonrepeating” (20). The trial and error aspect of finding a balance of one stone on another, the shifting and turning of one stone to fit onto another in a precarious position, has a distinct rhythm - there is a moving in, opening, pulling away, a back and forth movement akin to walking a labyrinth. There is a cradling of a rock, then supporting it and seeking a still point, a place of comfort, a niche, an interlock; then the hands rest and stay suspended, touching sides; then, you pull hands up and away; the rock seems to rebound from sinking down and in to the one below it to floating up off of it; a force resonates or flows upward, almost like water in a tree; it offsets gravity without fighting it. Quasha thinks of the balancing process as “listening,” as a series of gestures guided by surfaces that don’t exert pressure. This practice comprises a “reversal of reflex, a sensory inversion” (25) where touching the stones would reveal the most, but is least allowable. Balanced stones thus both attract us to them and repel us away at the same time; they hover in a neutral zone, a space of mutually cancelling impulses and offsetting bodies adding up to a nothing. Stacking stones also creates a particularly rich zone of contact between lived human time and geological time. A stone’s specific morphological features are traces of multiple events across diverse timescales, from tectonic processes of subduction and uplift to tidal tumbling and wind wearing. Every little feature one searches out, the features that make a balance possible, result from an untraceable sequence of minute events. Stacking stones demands skill but it is less about control over material than allowing

materials and bodies (including one’s own) to merge with one another and assume a new form. Working with stones in this attentive, open fashion enables the unfathomable histories of stones to intersect and interact with the human body’s clocks, the metabolic processes of muscles, the inhalation and exhalation of breathing, the diastolic and systolic pumping phases of the beating heart. On the conscious level, it is hard not to think about how a delicately poised balance produces a collision of disparate timescales, as the obdurate durability of stone contacts and contrasts with the unknown duration of the stone stack. I have been working on finding ways to give condensed, poetic expression to these lines of thinking. Here is a poetic meditation on these themes that I will use as a transition into discussing writings about rocks. Below is a poetic meditation on the theme of time and stone stacking, in a genre I call “Rockery Reveries.”

Ed Note: Thank you, Paul. We truly enjoyed your presentation even if some of us failed to understand it. This recap clarified any questions we may have had. Your approach to stones is clearly unique but your passion equals our own!

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Saturday was fantastic. 21 members and 1 dog in 9 vehicles caravanned out of Dunaway and into the Yuha Desert. There were no mishaps other than a camera hiccup. We all had varying degrees of success and without question, all the fun! Had it not been for the knowledge that we were headed for a pizza party poolside, we might have stayed even later….

Saturday night was brilliant. It was a balmy evening in lovely Calexico. We shared 9 extra large pizzas (we had 3 leftover for Sunday’s lunch) and adult beverages compliments of Ralph Johnson. Sunday was equally rewarding with sunny skies and more stones within easy reach. Thank you, Marty. (Photos by Larry and Richard Aguirre)

Yuha Trip : November 7~8, 2015

Janet Shimizu Phil Chang

We made quick work of 6 pizzas as well as smoked albacore, shrimp, green salads, fresh fruit, pie and cake, plus wine, margaritas and beer!

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John Palmer and Nina Ragle

Yum yum, Ailan and Uyen Truong who brought the Aiseki Kai cake!

Preparing to get back to the desert on Sunday morning Ready for another day….

Kit Blaemire, Wanda Matjas, and Rebecca Fletcher Kyra Haussler and Leila Fletcher

Jesse Krong and Phil Chang really like pizza!

November Contributors: Paul Harris, Jim Greaves and Larry Ragle. Mailing: Flash Partch Editor: Nina Ragle

Contact People

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Newsletter Committee

We hope you will participate. Please send any submissions to ragle@cox.net no more than 10 days following our monthly meeting. Thank you!

California Aiseki Kai meets on the 4th Wednesday of each month at 7:30 pm at the Nakaoka Community Center located at 1670 W. 162nd St, Gardena, CA. Second floor. We do not meet in Nov-Dec.

Stone Sales Ken McLeod 209-605-9386 or 209 586-2881

suisekiken@sbcglobal.net ~ californiasuiseki.com

Security/Docent Schedule Our show at the Huntington is just around the corner! Linda is looking for you to sign up as docents/security for our show. Naturally, anyone showing is expected to participate but all members are welcome. Let her know all the days and times you will be available. Date Hours Hours Dec 26 10:30-1:30 1:30-4:30 Dec 27 10:30-1:30 1:30-4:30 Dec 28 10:30-1:30 1:30-4:30 Dec 29 10:30-1:30 1:30-4:30 Dec 30 10:30-1:30 1:30-4:30 Dec 31 10:30-1:30 1:30-4:30 Jan 2 10:30-1:30 1:30-4:30 Jan 3 10:30-1:30 1:30-4:30 Linda can be reached at 818.833.9883 or email her at bigredlinda@earthlink.net We need you more than ever. Check your calendars and select your days and times. Tell Linda when you can work if the listed times are not convenient. Please arrive 5-10 minutes before your time slot. Remember your purpose: you are there to educate and to secure our displays. Linda said, “It's a great chance to get better acquainted with your fellow 'stoners' and we encourage all members to come and serve even if you are not an exhibitor. You'll learn a lot and it's fun!!!” Your participation is the key to our success. Don’t be shy……..volunteer and contact Linda.

Programs: Larry Ragle 949.497.5626 crimescene@cox.net Treasury/Membership: Nina Ragle 949.497.5626 ragle@cox.net Annual Exhibit: Jim Greaves 310.452.3680 jimgreaves@roadrunner.com Exhibit Set Up: Marge Blasingame 626.579.0420 margeblasingame@att.net Refreshments: Janet Shimizu 310-645-7208 janet.shimizu46@gmail.com Beverages : Phil Hogan 626-256-4609 pkhinkalif@gmail.com Historian: Ray Yeager 760.365.7897 ryeager890@aol.com Webmail: Chris Cochrane 804-918-4636 sashaichris@gmail.com

Designation (choose one only, a, b or c) a. Poetic Name (‘Sitting with Fan Kuan’) b. Descriptive identification (e.g. Distant Mountain) c. Japanese classification (e.g. Toyama-ishi)

Source (choose one only) a. Specific Site (e.g. Eel River, California) b. Generic source (e.g. River, Desert or Coast)

and/or State, Province or Region (e.g. Great Basin, Rocky Mountains, Northwest Coast) Name of Exhibitor

Hopefully, retaining some usage of Japanese names will impart a sense of the international and historical aspect of stone appreciation. Since this year we will use Japanese or English names on individual stone labels, it is suggested that the Japanese names be reserved primarily for stones that can be understood by the public without explanation in either language, such as a yamagata-ishi that can clearly be seen as a mountain. Note: If uncertain, the general categories below that are listed in Matsuura’s 2010 book may help. Mountain shaped stones Yamagata-ishi Island stones Shimagata-ishi Shore or coastal stones Iwagata-ishi Waterpool stones Mizutamari-ishi Waterfall stones Taki-ishi Plateau stones Doha Stepped or terraced stones Danseki Stones with an opening (caves, arches, tunnels) Domon Figure stones & hut stones Sugata-ishi & kuzuya-ishi Pattern stones Monyo-ishi

Labels will be consistent, made by Kit Blaemire, and will be 3 lines total. Remember, you are limited to 5 stones or displays per person, space available. Your labels MUST reach Kit by Thursday, Dec.10th!

If you have a multiple stone themed display, please contact Jim Greaves for labeling instructions.

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2015 Show Labels

Ragle P.O. Box 4975 Laguna Beach CA 92652

Coming Events

Leaves no stone unturned

ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED

aisekikai.com

Always check Golden Statements Magazine Calendar section for additional coming events

Freeman Wang 626-524-5021 Suiseki-Viewing Stone Sale

stores.ebay.com/thestoneking

Dues are Due. Become an e~subscriber and save a tree: Send $10 to CA Aiseki Kai c/o Nina Ragle, P.O. Box 4975, Laguna Beach, CA 92652-4975.

26th Anniversary Exhibition Viewing Stone Show, Huntington Library

and Botanical Gardens Botanical Center, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino

December 26, 2015 —January 3, 2016 10:30—4:30 (closed New Years Day)

BONSAI-A-THON XX GSBF Collection at The Huntington Fundraiser, Feb 27-28, 2016. Huntington Botanical Center. 1151 Oxford Rd., San Marino, 7:30-4:30. This is a fundraiser so bring donations! Please continue to support the Southern California Bonsai and Viewing Stone Collection. For more information, go to: gsbfhuntington.com/bonsai-a-thon

Thank you Buzz Barry, Paul Harris, Kyra Haussler, BJ Ledyard, Jack Levy, Mika Breyfogle, and Kit Blaemire for the gourmet October treats. Epic spread! We have enjoyed some amazing calories this year thanks to all of you wonderful volunteers.

We do not have a meeting in November or December so please save your excellent recipes for 2016!

Refreshments