I was going to post this with a caption that I had in mind while taking it, but when I asked a friend how he'd caption it, he came up with something on a completely different tack that surprised me. So before I bias you with my caption or his, I thought I'd request others' thoughts, too.

So as not to prejudice later readers, I'll hold all comments in moderation for a day or so.

UPDATE: subbmitted suggestions are now showing below -- Thanks! -- and my followup post has desktop-background versions of the image, as well as my thoughts [...]

This post – #1,392 on my blog – is by far the longest I've ever endeavored to write, and yet at the same time one of the least fulfilling to present.

Great vistas like the Grand Canyon or an old palace find their magnificence in the wide view, in the sum of their parts, but the gardens around the workshop of the centuries-old Nishimura Stone Lanterns find their magnificence in an attention to detail. A wide view can help present a context for something of interest, but this site is definitely a case where the sum of the parts is [...]

So, I didn't stump anyone in my previous "Fairly Dirty What am I? Quiz", and probably won't this time either, but while in the back gardens behind the Nishimura Stone Lanterns workshop, amid the bounty of photogenic beauty of 800 years worth of stone carvings, I came across the above assemblage of stone (granite, I assume) whose purpose, like many of the pieces I encountered that day, seemed mysterious to me.

It sort of looks like a bench, but it's much smaller than that... maybe 8" (20cm) tall.

What is it?

Stonecarver-related posts are continued here...

In "Nishimura Stone Lanterns: the Workshop" I introduced a stone-carver workshop in the Kitashirakawa area of Kyoto that I came across last week. I visited again the other day, stopping first at the workshop to request permission to visit their amazing back garden.

The workshop is open to the street, and upon walking up, Paul Barr and I found none other than Daizo Nishimura, the 5th-generation stonecarver/owner at work preparing a stone for carving. I took the photo above before he noticed us.

Upon seeing us, he immediately stopped his work to chat with us. I felt bad about interrupting [...]

As I mentioned yesterday, the visit to the workshop and gardens of Nishimura Stone Lanterns (a fifth-generation hand stone-carving business) and their back garden was an amazing, overwhelming, mentally draining experience.

I haven't even given my photos a first-pass inspection, but soon after taking the photo above I knew it was emblematic of our time there, and knew that I would post it early.

Here's a photo by Paul Barr of me taking it...

As you can see in Paul's shot, the leaves are resting on a fairly simple square column, with a few adornments at the top, ending with [...]