Ōya stone is an igneous green tuff renowned for its warm texture and flexibility, famously used by Frank Lloyd Wright to build the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. It was the same material used to create the Venus of Gyoza and is a specialty of Utsunomiya City, quarried in its namesake town of Ōya. The earliest usage of Ōya stone dates back to the 6th-century when it was used to build burial mounds and sarcophagi for local lords. The mass quarrying of Ōya stone was initiated during the mid to late Edo period,…
