Japanese Natural Whetstone Shohonyama Shobudani Suita 535g from Kyoto Japan

This is Shobudani Suita Koppa from Kyoto. Beautiful Pink color partially appears. Soft, Rich & Fine slurry comes out quickly. Soft, rich and fine suspension comes out quickly. Very high abrasive capacity, one of the fastest stones I've had. It's not flattened perfectly, some dents still remained. Please lap well before sharpening.  Please note that these are not for beginner sharpeners since they're harder to use. 

The origin of Shoubudani quarry is about 800 years ago.

Shoubudani and Nakayama stones were patronized by the Imperial household, for its superior quality used for polishing swords. These stones have never been traded among the commonality between Kamakura period(1185~1333) to mid Muromachi period (1336~1573). It was at the end of Muromachi when these stones appered within the general market, although the better stones were still monopolised by the royalities, the stones with lines and odd shapes were used by the craftsmen and carpenters, and this contributed to the drastic improvement in quality of their works.

If you are familiar with Japanese natural finishing stones, I suppose you have heard of the name Hon-yama. The name Hon-yama is used by any finishing stones nowadays so it mearly means "finishing stone" now, but this name originally was the nick name for Shoubudani mountain. Nakayama is also one of the quarry from this mountian. Honma Tou-zaemon Toki-nari has been appointed as the leader of mining by the famous Shogun of Kamakura period Minamotono Yoritomo in 1190. Thus the mountain was called Honma's mountain = Hon-yama. "Yama" means mountain. Shoubu-dani and Nakayama stones are the only genuine Hon-yama stone.

-Dimension / Weight / Grit Size / Hardness

75-85mm x 70-195mm x 5-22mm ( Approx.) / 535g / #6000-8000  / Lv.3.0-3.5

- Excellent stone for knives, tools