Thread: Nayayama Kiita & Asagi

Originally Posted by Lemur

I forgot, sorry!
It's an Tosho S.2 folding Kamisori, don't know much about it other than it feels like an ax and shaves good!

I personally like that style better to traditional kamisori, the steel also to me feels better than the usual White 2, I have not tried Iwasaki Kamisori yet.

Originally Posted by mainaman

I personally like that style better to traditional kamisori, the steel also to me feels better than the usual White 2, I have not tried Iwasaki Kamisori yet.

Someday you will I'm sure!

Originally Posted by brooksie967

I was told that it's a Nakayama Maruichi and the color looks like kiita/asagi to me.. blue spot? It's as good if not better than my Ozuku Mizu Asagi and I enjoy the size for smilers!
Would it be safe to call it Kiita Asagi Kan(for the rings)

Brooksie
You are on the right track, but Elibul I just don't see the kiita yellow color.
Brooksie, you can see in you stone that the asagi and kiita are both from the tomae strata, your stones shares some of the transition between the asagi to kiita. Not fully yellow and a sort of kan color instead. The asagi is a gray/green/blue tomae stone, the kiita is a yellow tomae stone. A kiita stone will provide a yellow slurry, the asagi a white slurry that can have tints of yellow but will generally dry white.

There are 48 different tomae layers or stratas in the mines of Yamashiro, not every layer has kiita and in fact kiita is one of the rarer occurances in the mines. Kiita is a yellow stone and in some tomae layers are other types of color stones as you can see in the photos. A gray type of tomae stone with some rust/ocher/yellow is not a kiita stone and an asagi stone that has a hint of yellow in the slurry is not a kiita.

The asagi stones called Mizu Asagi are usually blue or with an under tone of blue. Mizu means water but water can be clear in a glass but green or blue in a lake or ocean so this term is very broad. The lovely asagi stones that are green with hints of blue and yellow are mineral rich and the yellow and blue minerals optically mix in our eye to make green much like the dot matrix is used in 3 color (4 color if you count the black) offset printing where your eye blends the 3 color to make various colors including yellow and blue to make green.

All of these unique color stones are becoming more and more rare on the market, there are lots of gray stones still left in storage because they were not regarded as easy to use, hence the "for experts only" designation. The color stones were always the easiest to use and scarce, so now there are becoming even harder to find.

Sorry to disappoint anyone who thinks that a bit of kan/rust looks like a kiita stone, but a kiita really has to be all yellow of various shades and intensities of yellow or what they call in Japan "tomago", egg color.

Alx

well thats interesting Alx ,i though any stone that was yellow was a kitta and i though kan meant rings so what would you call my stone ?

Originally Posted by eleblu05

well thats interesting Alx ,i though any stone that was yellow was a kitta and i though kan meant rings so what would you call my stone ?

I think he was referring to the Kan on my stone. How color correct are the photos of your stone compared to the stone as you see it in person?

Originally Posted by eleblu05

well thats interesting Alx ,i though any stone that was yellow was a kitta and i though kan meant rings so what would you call my stone ?

Not answering for Alx but the colour of a stone does not necessarily refer to it's provenance. just as not all red cars are Ferraris.

I tried to understand it all once. I thought I was close, then someone else would say something else and I'd get all confused again.

Nowadays I just contact my preferred seller and say "I need a stone that does this, that, and the other." I get shown a few alternatives, we talk about their properties (my guy uses the ones he sells, generally, or lets you try them out) and then discuss prices.

Variations in naturals mean that knowledge of the strata, mine, colour etc might not mean as much as some people think they do. Like I said, I just own up to the fact that I don't have a clue and try before I buy. I know that may not be possible for everyone, but to be perfectly frank if someone wants Jnat money off me, they'd better at least have a full no questions asked returns policy.

James.

Originally Posted by eleblu05

well thats interesting Alx ,i though any stone that was yellow was a kitta and i though kan meant rings so what would you call my stone ?

You are right, kan means rings and they are usually darker against a light ground like B's stone. Your tomae stone has the yake effect, a toasted light brown color that when darker can scratch the hard steel. The yake does not show up on every photo so I assume it is light and therefore not toxic. Both of your stones I would simply refer to as tomae strata stones. The same goes for the stones in the bottom photo on my page Color Stones, these would be called kiita. Kiita stones in the best forms have a uniform homogeneous color throughout the whole stone from front to back including all of the interior.
Alx

I've tried one almost gold colored Kiita but i didn't have the gold bar to trade for it, prices of those rocks are high to say the least.

ok thanks alx always enjoy leaning from some of the more experienced members when it come to j-nats. so i have learned you cant call a stone a kitta unless its a complete yellow color. i have yake written down as a burnt brown/dark golden streaks