✳︎Product Name: (Suiton Suiton) Pen Stand ✳︎Craftsman: Soichi Kushida ✳︎Production Area: Hiruzen Highlands, Okayama Prefecture ✳︎Material: Wood ✳︎Size: Height 12cm, Width 10cm After the war, a strange monster appeared in the Hiruzen Highlands, which had transformed from Japan's largest training ground into a tourist destination. From head to hem, a long, inverted triangle-shaped mouth, with white teeth dotted inside the bright red mouth, and triangular eyes with increasingly upturned corners. According to the research of the artist Soichi Kushida, it was a monster called "Suiton - Suiton." It seems that the late heavyweight of Japanese painting, Tatehiko Kuda, said this when he visited Hiruzen in October of Showa 34 (1959). The painter was from Tottori City, but as a child, he lived in a place where Mt. Daisen and Hiruzen were clearly visible, and he often heard stories about the "Suiton" of Hiruzen from his parents as bedtime stories. It had one leg and would suddenly appear, flying close by with a "Suii-ton" sound, and would stand there, even tearing humans apart and eating them. ◎Excerpt from the Suiton bookmark The "Wakan Sansai Zue" (Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Three Realms of Man, Heaven, and Earth) contains many strange creatures, both frightening and comical, and sometimes even cute, such as the Kikyaku (wood guest), Yama-sō (mountain operator), Suiki (water demon), and Mai-saba (dancing mackerel), but the Akayama (Red Mountain) has long been inhabited by a monster called "Tōshun." "Suiton" knows everything a human thinks. Therefore, if someone plots evil or causes trouble for others, the Suiton will appear from nowhere with a "Suii" sound and stand on one leg with a "Ton" sound, and they will be immediately torn apart and eaten. That's why there are no bad people in Akayama. December 15, Showa 37 (1962), at Hiruzen, Soichi Kushida ◎↓Search Terms Totem Pole Dondoro Shigeru Mizuki Hiruzen Highlands