National Gemstone
Many people may be familiar with national flowers (also known as floral emblems) and national birds, but today I will show you national gemstones.
国石
National gemstones are stones that symbolizes the countries, and a national gemstone in Japan is a crystal.
国花や国鳥に馴染みがある人は多いと思いますが、今日は国石を紹介します。
The reason is because that once high-quality crystals were able to be extracted in Japan, and we had an excellent crystal polishing technique.
国石とはその国を象徴する石のことで、日本の場合は水晶です。
Basically, stones that are known as specialties become the national gemstones.
かつて良質な水晶の産地であったことと、水晶研磨技術も優れていたためです。
For example, the national gemstone in; India and Arab is a pearl, Austria and Australia is an opal, Thailand and Myanmar is a ruby, and Colombia is an emerald.
基本的には、名産である宝石が国籍となります。
There are also many exceptions, e.g., the national gemstone in; the US is a sapphire, the UK is a diamond, and China is a jade, but the localities of these gemstones are not these countries.
例えば、インドやアラブは真珠、オーストリアやオーストラリアはオパール、タイやミャンマーはルビー、コロンビアはエメラルドです。
These national gemstones were decided by the national flag color, the national image, or the trade culture.
例外も多く存在し、アメリカはサファイア、イギリスはダイヤモンド、中国はヒスイですが、いずれも産地とは関係がありません。
