gems, jade, pyroxene jade, jadeite, fei cui, omphacite, kosmochlor, Japan

An important early Japanese work on stones, minerals, fossils and related natural objects by Kiuchi Sekitei (木内石亭, 1725–1808), one of Japan’s pioneering students and collectors of minerals. Unkonshi (雲根志, literally “Records of Cloud Roots,” an old literary expression for stones) describes and classifies a wide variety of stones collected or reported from Japan, combining direct observation with information from Chinese and Japanese literature, folklore and traditional natural history. The work records physical characteristics, localities, names, uses and unusual properties of stones and includes gemstones and ornamental materials among its subjects. Issued in successive parts beginning in 1773 and eventually comprising 15 books, Unkonshi is a major source for the history of Japanese mineralogy and stone collecting before the introduction of modern Western mineralogical classification. Contains the first mention of worked jade in Japan.