Yamanashi Gem Museum,
Kawaguchi-ko, Japan

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The "Yamanashi Gem Museum" is in Kawaguchi-ko.  We had to check it out, but if rocks bore you, skip this page.

This carving was so amazing that I had to include it even though the photo is blurry.

I think this is person who did the previous two carvings.

An exquisitely thin carved bowl.

Another amazing carving.

This is a huge Brazilian quartz that weighs 1270 kg.

Calcite from Irai, Brazil.

The labels are almost totally in Japanese and localities are either not given, or just a country is named.

A huge plate of Clevelandite from Brazil - Russ put his Camels next to it for scale.

Some of the specimens are in very poor shape, unfortunately.

This is one of the few specimens from Japan.  We had hoped to see more Japanese specimens.

Amethyst.

A very nice & large Japan-law twin Quartz.

Garnet.

Rubies.  About half the museum consisted of cut stones, usually with at least one uncut (rough) specimen.

Decorative screen with mineral inlay .

Opal.

A very fine, large Korean Amethyst.

Russ standing next to his favorite specimen.

This one cabinet alone appeared to contain a fine collection of Japanese minerals.

Unfortunately, without labels in katakana, I was unable to read what they were.

Hopefully in the future, they might add labels in English for these fascinating specimens.

 

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