suiseki

English

Cape San Martin suiseki

Etymology

From Japanese 水石 (suiseki, literally “water stone”).

Noun

suiseki (countable and uncountable, plural suisekis)

1. A Japanese artform in which attractively shaped rocks and stones are mounted and displayed.
   • 1967, 大貫忠三, page 51:

     Metamorphic rocks such as crystalline schists, gneisses, quartzite, slate, etc. are most popularly used as garden stones and suisekis, but some other kinds of stone, igneous and sedimentary in origin, are also collected,

   • 1988, United States. Agricultural Research Service, The National Bonsai and Penjing Museum of the U.S. National Arboretum:

     The same love for natural form expressed in bonsai is also found in suiseki, or stone viewing, long associated with bonsai in Japanese tradition.

   • 1995, Arts of Asia - Volume 25, Issues 1-3, page 98:

     During this period of Japanese history, suiseki, as well as the tea ceremony, flower arrangement, bonsai, calligraphy, literature, painting, music, and architecture, attained new levels of refinement and perfection.

   • 2004, Bonsai & Suiseki: Trees & Stones, →ISBN:

     What was for many years an eIusive dream among FiIipino bonsai artists and suiseki Iovers, has now become a reaIity: the pubIication of this book.

See also

• bonseki

Indonesian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Japanese 水石(すいせき) (suiseki, literally “water stone”), from 水 (すい, sui, “water”) +‎ 石 (せき, seki, “stone”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sui.se.ki/
• Hyphenation: sui‧sé‧ki

Noun

suiseki (first-person possessive suisekiku, second-person possessive suisekimu, third-person possessive suisekinya)

1. suiseki: a Japanese artform in which attractively shaped rocks and stones are mounted and displayed.