Solid Granite Billboard

KASAMA, Japan – A stone quarry cooperative is thinking big about its products– as in a 150-ton solid granite billboard.
The rock was unearthed from the site of a complex for the city’s Inada stone cooperative, which consists of 19 companies, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun
The 14’ X 24’ stone includes the carving of the cooperative’s logo, a fish (in Japanese, ishi) and Inada takumi no shu (Inada stone craftsmen).Local university students provided the images.
The $42,000 project (partially funded with local government subsidies) aimed to boost the spirits of Inada employees, according to the cooperative’s vice head Keiichi Inanobe, 63, who succeeded his father as president of Inanobe Sekizai Kogyo when he was 15 years old.
According to Inanobe, from about 1955 to 1965, orders reached a high for Inada stone with the boom in high-rise building in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
Demand for Inada stone fell as consumers turned to Chinese stone, which was one-third the price of Inada stone. The cooperative currently produces monuments.