In the Japanese Galleries at the Metropolitan Museum in New York,
water flows from a seven-sided stone.
Instead of a traditional Japanese garden basin, a modern sculpture cut from a basalt rock
with polished sides and a rough skin.
Installing the work presented problems.
Another one, another one. I said styrofoam. Get styrofoam.
Then we put something, styrofoam, something-
The American sculptor, Isamu Noguchi, was not pleased with everything the museum staff
had planned.
The main support of the secondary tank-
What I'm worried about is the [crosstalk]
How would the water be contained?
It's too high.
Would the plumbing show?
The secondary pane, we will come up that high.
We're trying to make it look so it looks like nature. Because if you put the secondary pan
you'll see that pan too, even more so. You'll even see it more. This at least is deep.
And if you don't mind my taking some of these out...
You will see it. And the people are not blind. I mean --
The task was to set the rock so that its flat top would be perfectly level in relation to
the center of the earth.
Noguchi's studio head, Mr. Izumi, came from Japan.
Helping at all Noguchi installations, the architect, Shoji Sadao.
How are you going to hold it up?
We're going to put the stone right on here. You see, this is the part we did not know.
I explained over the top they're going to rest on these stones.
Right.
Right?
Either way is fine with me.
You want to discuss it with Frieda before we make the final decision? I mean, once we
have it set, it is set.
Well, right. But is they're now --
Placing the rock precisely took seven hours.
Can we start?
The reason to have this in the perfect level is that the water should run out perfectly
even all around.
You have to get into position. Come this way.
Okay. A little bit, push that over this way.
One roll will do the trick.
Going up?
Going up.
Turn around, now we'll see.
The five supporting stones have been cut flat on the top and bottom, mirror-smooth like
the bottom of the sculpture itself.
No, on this side.
You think so?
Let it down.
Okay.
It weighs one ton.
Taking it apart and putting it back and taking off and putting it back, I'm telling you more
or less the great post of it, right?
Whatever adjustments we have to do, we do with the pinch bar.
Okay, that's enough.
I bet you we did it 18 times.
Beautiful.
The surrounding granite stones come from the Ise River, 200-some miles southwest of Tokyo,
near the most sacred of Shinto shrines.
The belly button.
Big moment now.
Yep.
This is it.
That's... I'd say that's level.
That's pretty neat.
It's pretty good. Well, once it's level, it'll come this side too.
Well, I think we can go.
Can't we? Aren't we finished?
It's a good day's work, yeah. Can we get more water over this edge?
We can but I think, don't try to do too much. That's kind of an accident of nature.
Don't try to make it perfect. Imperfection is what's important.
If anybody ever says anything,
I said, imperfection is better than perfection.
Well we have plenty of imperfection around here.
Initialed I.N. Isamu Noguchi.
Shoji, I think it's time we got back to work.
He just came all the way from Japan.
You want the water to show on these rocks, right?
I think it's very nice. Very, very nice.
They sprinkle the rocks every morning.
The Japanese do it all the time.
Up together on three.
All right. Ready? One, two, three.
Rocks come alive. The wetness, you see?
Yeah.
It's nice. I wouldn't do a thing. Just leave it alone.
Just let it go.
Yeah, yeah. With time, this will get browner. But it's very beautiful brown.
Harmony of rock and water.
Paintings of rocks and outside views bring nature indoors. Japanese architecture is unthinkable
without views of nature.
In its middle is a void. That well, which I have made by drilling into the stone, is
very deep. By its depth, the water is stilled. It does not shoot up, but is pressured down
by the weight of the water above, you see. Therefore, it flows out horizontally over
the entire stone. The water flows every which way, you see.
Isamu Noguchi was born in Los Angeles in 1904. He was 82 years old when this sculpture was installed.