Viewers were able to look inside and—in the sculptural context of relating interior structure to exterior form—were confronted with the sheer size and solidity of the stone in contrast to the thin membrane of paper that covers it.
Crack the Stone in August '70 consisted of an immense block of granite split in two at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.
At that time, Koshimizu was exploring the fundamentals of sculpture without the need for juxtaposition: splitting open the stone and exposing its inside was a means to show the materiality and presence of the rock itself.
The work is composed of thirty, thirteen-foot-long square beams of wood, the surfaces of which have been sliced at varying intervals and angles to create undulating expanses of geometric form.
Koshimizu's work has received renewed attention in the United States following his inclusion in "Requiem for the Sun: The Art of Monoha", at Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, in February 2012.