Stones and stone placement form an important element of Japanese landscapes and gardens.

In fact, landscaping with stone is the first job in building landscapes and gardens. "A well-designed stone grouping provides a focal point and a setting that shows off a planting and building design. Stones create a subtle relationship with the surrounding environment that would be missing in a landscape made up solely of plantings and man-made structures.

Natural stonescapes can be modeled after mountains, rivers, waterfalls, peninsulas, lake shores, cliffs, ravines, any geological formation you can think of. Once placed in the garden, they can bring the same sense of grandeur, wonder and peacefulness that you might have felt as you first glimpsed any of the natural wonders present in the world around us."

Dube and Campbell - Natural Stonescapes 1999

This page is devoted to smooth stones and character stones - things that must be handmade, and cannot be generated by a computer program.