By Linda Burman-Hall 

Arriving from the eternal heavens, the founding dieties of Japan — Izanagi and his wife Izanami — took their first steps on land near where the Ise Shrine now stands in Mie Prefecture. The Meoto Iwa (Married Rocks) Shinto site at Futami is considered to personify the couple, eternally connected by a shimenawa rice-stalk cord setting them apart as two distinct kami spirits occupying sacred space.

In this free contemporary interpretation, paired viewing stones pay homage while representing a modern intercultural couple. The ”husband” is a bamboo-leaf pattern stone of calcium carbonate thrust from the seabed onto the shore of Laizhou in China's Shandong Province. China is sometimes called The Kingdom of Bamboo, and there, bamboo symbolizes virtue, a noble attribute. The “wife” is a pale golden chrysanthemum stone from Japan, suggesting the Imperial family's primary crest as a symbol for longevity, integrity, and endurance. This strong yet feminine stone was mined near the Neo Valley in Gifu Prefecture, Honshu.

Together the couple may be considered to reflect the history of viewing stones — the energy flowing down symbolically from China to Japan, and now already internationalized. While the Izenagi stone at Futami is about 10 meters tall, our contemporary groom is just 21.6 cm, not counting his torii gate, and his wife just under 14 cm. The couple rests serenely in wet Jurassic sand on a deep sea-colored slab, bound together for all eternity by the hand-woven blessed ritual rice straw shimenawa with its fuse tassels, which in traditional Shinto embodies the rich complexity and warmth of the couple's emotional bond. 

Thanks to Yasue Sagawa of Tokyo for ordering the handmade ritual shimenawa with appropriate Shinto blessings per artist specifications from a commercial shimenawa maker, and to Thomas Elias for the gift of the bronze Torii Gate. Manufactured navy quartz slab cut to artist's specifications; penjing sand styling by the artist. Photography by Tim Shea. The display is 100 cm x 55.88 cm x 26.66 cm.