A very rare cabinet sized example of *crystalized* rhodochrosite on barite from Japan. This piece is repaired.
To begin with, there has been almost no new Japanese rhodochrosite collected in approximately 35 years, so the material has never been particularly abundant-- but almost all of the rhodochrosite seen on the market comes from Oppu. The Oppu pieces and to be botryoidal, and almost never exhibit crystals. Pieces from Osarizawa are considerably rarer-- in fact, the mine was only operational from 1936 to 1965. Pieces from this locality are notable for usually being crystalline-- and this is a particularly rich example costing many, rather large pink crystals.