ao-ishi　青石

KEY WORD :　architecture / gardens

Lit. blue stone. A generic name for a blue green stone of chlorite schist much used in gardens from the Muromachi period onward. These hard stones usually were used for garden bridges and pavement *shiki-ishi 敷石. Ao-ishi with vertical stripes often were employed as the mirror stones *kagami-ishi 鏡石, used to represent waterfalls in dry gardens *karesansui 枯山水. The best ao-ishi were quarried in the Iyo 伊予, Awa 阿波, Kishuu 紀州, and Chichibu 秩父 regions, and each of these areas lent its name to the ao-ishi produced there.

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