Rock Stacking
The art the yoki-hijo of Torio use to call the primal spirits: deliberate, improvisational arrangements of rocks balanced into impossible-looking sculptures at the place of ritual. The spirits respond to creativity — order from chaos, beauty from raw materials, something from nothing — and a yoki-hijo's craft scales the same way: a richer, more ambitious sculpture summons more hijo. STD:YNP:Ch 4
Known facts
- trained-as-precision-not-feelingYumi teaches Painter that the art begins with weighing stones and finding their centre of gravity — precision work, in her telling, with no allowance for feeling, mood, or contemplation. Apprentices spend the first weeks just lifting and judging stones; she herself spent months on this stage of her training.STD:YNP:Ch 18
- scale-required-to-draw-spiritsYumi tells Painter that drawing the primal spirits consistently requires around thirty stones per stack and about twenty separate stacks arranged in a pattern. Forty stones straight up is easy and should be used sparingly; the more daring, interesting balances are what pleases the spirits.STD:YNP:Ch 20
Backreferences
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 4
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 11
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 13
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 14
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 17
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 18
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 20
- factNikaro
- factInstitute of Mechanical Solutions
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 21
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 22
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 31
- factNikaro
- factThe Shroud