hipping stones

From the you-learn-something-new-everyday category…
Once again out looking for something else and I came across this photo of ‘hipping stones’ on a BBC site.

(Photo © BBC Lancashire. Used with permission.)
I’ve seen this type of thing in a lot of places but never heard it referred to by this name.
A little exploring found this:

I realized I had a couple photos from last fall of just such a structure.

The photo above is early morning on the Kamogawa (Kamo River) in Kyoto showing ‘hipping stones’ [1], a man and young girl making use of same [2], successfully [3], with a watching egret [4].
I believe the egret is called ‘dai sagi’ in Japan.
I don’t know if there is a phrase for the stones, provincial or otherwise.
The Kamo proved to be hippinable.

addendum:

New day, new something learned.

Thanks to a friend I have learned the proper Japanese term for stones crossing water:
“sawa-watari-ishi” (small river-crossing-stone) [sometimes shortened to 'sawatari-(i)shi'].
The activity illustrated is “tobi-ishi-watari” (jumping-stone-cross).

Tobi-ishi (stepping stones), can also be found in gardens where they are spaced in such a way as to subtly influence movement through the space.