Paul Barr is in Kyoto again, and we made a trip to the back gardens of Nishimura Stone Lanterns, behind their stone-carving workshop, as we did last year. Even after all the posts last year (enough to merit a "Nishimura Stonecarvers" category on my blog), including a 51-photo "overview" post, there was much left to explore at the gardens.

Unfortunately, despite our visit being 10 days earlier than last year's, the fall colors were mostly gone and the trees bare, and to make it worse, someone had just cleaned up all the photogenically-endearing leaves from the paths. But on the [...]

It's been a while since we've seen anything from Nishimura Stone Lantern stone-carving shop, so here's a close up of a stone sphere, tucked away haphazardly under the legs of a large stone lantern. (The combination is visible toward the bottom of this wider view.)

As I mentioned in "Deceptively Clear: Snow-Covered Mountains in Exquisite Detail", I prefer a darker tone to the image I use for my desktop background, so I'll give this one a try for a while. I've accumulated quite a number of them on my blog over the years, as evidenced by my pretty Desktop Background [...]

I mentioned in "Stone Carvings: Curves, Crowns, an Ouchie, and More" how drawn I was to the curved shapes among the many items in the gardens behind the Nishimura Stone Lanterns stone-carving workshop. I recall several moss-covered basins, but I seem to have neglected to take pictures of any. I'm really drawn to them while reviewing the day's photos, but I apparently didn't pay much attention while I was there because the only photos I have of them are Paul Barr's, who went with me on that trip.

One of my favorites is the plain curved water basin that I [...]

Among the seemingly infinite variety of objects in the gardens behind the Nishimura Stone Lanterns stone-carving workshop in the mountains of north-east Kyoto, Japan, I was particularly taken with the curved pieces. And of these, there was quite a variety, including water basins, pedestal tops, lantern-top adornments, and sloping roofs like the one in the photo above.

The roof of this piece looks thin and delicate, but the original block of stone it was made from must have necessarily been thick and substantial, only to surrender most of its mass to the carver's chisel. The bulk of that original block [...]

Well, my previous stone-related "What am I?" quiz was apparently too difficult for everyone, so here's a softy....

I found this stone lantern among the hundreds of odd-shaped and beautiful stone carvings in the gardens behind the Nishimura Stone Lanterns workshop. Those familiar with the Star Wars™ world (or with the vast array of Star Wars™ toys their kids might leave underfoot) will likely find that these photos call to mind the Imperial Star Destroyers from the original movies.... especially after I write "Imperial Star Destroyer" several times. 🙂

I would assume that this was carved before any of the [...]