Hey Dave: many congratulations with your 60th birthday!!! Next year will also be special for a numerical reason as I'm sure you're well aware: 11/11/11.

As for the future room(s) in your exhibition, I certainly hope you won't stop making prints! But I'll follow this thread and let you know when I have any comments or ideas...

Jacques ... not yet! A full year to go before I'm 60 ...

Interesting about the 11/11/11 ... I hadn't thought of that. It's similar to my birth date, of course: 51/11/11

And as I mentioned, I really can't see myself stopping printmaking. As much as I would like to get involved with some other projects, I think there are some 'interesting' prints still waiting to be made here!

Sorry, I guess I read too fast.

My congratulations still hold for your 59th though!

Your 60th birthday does seem like a milestone, and a good time to evaluate your situation. All I could think about as I read your entry was "Dave, you have to use that beautiful wood that's been waiting for you all these years!"

Hi Dave, and Happy Birthday to you! I read your discussion above with great interest. I'm less than 2 months away from my 62nd birthday and let me assure you that I’ve had some of the same thought processes that you have. I’ve got some “advice” for you. Take it for what it’s worth (the ramblings of an old coot), but I believe that some of what I’m going to say will resonate with you.

I’m a capitalist, and proud of it. Within the capitalist framework, success is measured by how much “wealth” we accumulate. “Wealth” is the portion of what we earn that we don’t spend; rather, “wealth” is what we keep. In common usage, other words for “wealth” are “assets” and “capital”.

The continual challenge for the capitalist is how to invest his/her wealth to achieve his/her investment objectives. Over the course of a lifetime, it is appropriate that investment objectives change according to a set pattern. The young capitalist’s objective is capital appreciation, which necessarily involves accepting risk. As the capitalist ages, he/she must slowly execute a transition toward the investment objectives of capital preservation, generation of income, and minimal risk. Once a certain age is reached (say "60 years old" for the sake of argument), the transition to capital preservation with minimal risk should have been completed.

Before I discuss the deployment of your capital, I think that it would be helpful to define what it consists of. Let’s look at 2 different classes of assets, tangible and intangible.

Dave’s tangible assets:

• Original woodblock sets for well over 300 separate prints.
  
• Home in Tokyo, owned free and clear of all debt.
  
• Tools
  

Dave’s intangible assets:

• Knowledge and skills as a craftsman.
  
• Ability to communicate via writing and mastery of electronic media.
  
• Ability to survive quite nicely with minimal monetary expense.
  
• Competence in running a small business.
  
• A solid base of customers.
  

No doubt, there are some elements of your capital that I don’t see, but in my estimation from what I can see, you are indeed a wealthy man.

Here’s my counsel:

• Avoid risk! You’re too old to bet the farm on anything, no matter how certain it seems.
  
• Accept your failing eyesight and transition from carving to printing (but not until you’ve carved those 6 cool blocks that you stashed away years ago).
  
• Give more attention (but NOT money) to Mokuhankan, with the objective of getting a stream of income which will not involve handwork on your part.
  

That’s my advice. Whatever happens, I’ll still be there as an eager customer for your products. Investing my own capital in your prints has always seemed like a good plan to me.

I rarely read or comment on your round table discussions. This time I want to say I am sooo glad you will not leave printmaking behind. Facing our senior years and figuring out how to continue as our bodies grow old is indeed a task. The one asset you possess that has not been mentioned is a good clear mind. With your skill, your level head, clear mind and strong independent will I am certain you still have much to give to the world of printmaking. I too, as one who is over 60, would counsel you to avoid risk. Find ways to spread your knowledge without putting your monetary assets at risk. The next room in your imaginary review will most certainly not be empty.

Dave, what about teaching? I've always thought there would be a huge audience of international students just longing to come and learn from you. You could convert part of your home into some form of basic accommodation and offer short courses, residential courses and perhaps year-long courses/apprenticeships. In time you then hire a series of 'experts' to hold master classes in baren making, paper-making, Japanese book-binding. People love Japan and will visit anyway, wouldn't it be great if they could combine their vacation with a traditional Japanese woodblock printing course taught by one of the master carver/printers in the world? It would take some effort on your part to set up, there's no doubt, but it might be something that could keep you going for a long time yet, without having to rely so much on producing your own prints and selling them. Anyway, just a thought. You may have considered something like this and decided against it. But your DVD is brilliant and I think you would be a great teacher to limited numbers of students. Good luck with the thought-process, I shall be reading on...

I second the teaching suggestion. You've already got the textbook, after all: it's this website and your e-books! Rather than setting up your own school, though, were I you I'd start by doing seminars. Like Jane, I think that you might have your largest audience outside Japan, so you might spend, say, three months of the year traveling across Canada and the US teaching, and then the remainder of the year printmaking, with the balance slowly changing until you spend more time teaching than you do printing.

(And thanks for sharing these thoughts with us. I feel quite honored that you've done so!)

Teaching is a very good idea - bringing in an apprentice might be another one. This person could help with the things that failing eyesight might necessitate. An apprentice could help with all aspects, both the craft of carving blocks and eventually with the printing, business side and teaching. You have lots of alternatives within the printmaking world - no need to take big risks in the capitalism scenario. :-)

First, I also want to wish you a very Happy Birthday.

Mine is another voice suggesting that you might explore the world of education. Specifically, I am thinking of short courses and seminars at universities around the world, and especially at private universities in the United States. There are many types of visiting artists/scholars programs which can be created and funded by grants and university funds well able to sponsor and pay for your travel and teaching time. These often work well in interdisciplinary studies or in collaboration with museums for maximum community benefit. Such programs as I am envisioning need a good bit of lead time for a sponsor to arrange. You will need to plan your bookings at least two to three years out. The first few are the hardest. If the programs are good and the efforts are well organized on the part of the institutions involved, further demand will be generated.

As an ordinary consumer of art and culture, I have observed that there is a rhythm and cyclical pattern to the ideas and subjects that come into popularity and that the span of your lifetime has seen interest in Japanese culture increase in this country from the all-time low of the forties to the very high approval rating all things Japanese enjoy today in American culture. This is to say that you are well positioned, ahead of the curve and in the right place at the right time, I believe, to take advantage of the market in this country for Japanese culture.

While you have expressed no particular interest in traveling, you seem in an ideal position to do so at this point in your life. You already have at least the suggestion of a willingness to construct such presentations which need only to be tailored to the particular institution to which you might be marketing your expertise. You can provide gallery shows, media presentations, hands-on demonstrations, children's programs, professional training, presentations about Japanese culture and language--you would be the ideal one man band for some city or university that wanted to honor artists, entrepreneurs, Japanese heritage, or any other accomplishment represented by the many hats you wear so well.

Another aspect of teaching and working with eager students which I have discovered is the great joy and satisfaction one finds in getting to know them and helping them along their own path. I am not able to go out much now but I still receive visits almost every week from a number of former students whom I mentored along the way. The best and the brightest always appealed to me and many became more friend than pupil in the end. I have beloved friends and family of my own generation but the spark and excitement in my life now comes, I must confess, largely from my interaction with those young people I got to know along the way. Students are good for you.

To get started you would need some contacts in the field, perhaps a kind of agent, but I think if you had one or two visitors to your world from, perhaps a museum specialist or a professor of Japanese studies or woodblock printmaking in a university fine arts department, the treasure you bear in your person would be apparent and you would find suggestions and invitations would surely follow.

My only word of caution is that you aim high and present yourself as the highly accomplished individual you are and that you price yourself appropriately. In no circumstance should you offer this at anything less than a fee amount that will aggregate to a respectable nest egg over the next ten to twelve years. I have worked in meeting planning and specifically hired speakers and teachers while in that position in education and I can assure you that nobody wants a cheap expert. You only damage your chances if you do not value your offering highly. You must also be specific about travel, shipping, product marketing and accommodation arrangements to the last detail.

I hope you can find someone who has done this type of work with whom you can have a good long conversation about the pros and cons. I think you would be ideal for a two- to four-week stay as a visiting artist at a university/museum jointly sponsored program. The possibilities for collaborative programs are exciting for all the groups who might be interested in the Japanese aesthetics any city. I could go on suggesting additional possibilities but I think you probably can see them for yourself.

As someone who will be 76 this month, I can empathize mightily with your concerns for the next step. I started a new career at age 55 and thereafter paid off a mortgage as well as provided for a meagre retirement. (You are well ahead of me in the regard of already having paid off the mortgage at age 59 AND in having amassed the kind of capital Marc Kahn described).

I regret not knowing myself the ideal contact for you in this context but I will investigate and find out whether the people I do know, in turn might know the exact right person.

Wow, this is incredible! I get up this morning and find this huge list of long - and thoughtful - responses to the post. I had been really hesitant to start this whole thing, thinking that it would just be a lot of 'noise' that would be pretty much ignored. "Oh, here goes Dave again ... just making noise to get attention ..."

My 'problem' right now, is that I would love to sit here and write some responses to the ideas posed here - specifically about risk and teaching - but I've got to do some real work this morning! I'm still only at the tracing stage of print pair #9~#10, and this is going to be a difficult pair, with one of them involving a technique I've never done before.

But now that I think about it, this will force me to 'think before I reply', which is not such a bad idea. So please wait a bit, and I'll return to this page either later today, or perhaps tomorrow. (By the way, in case you haven't noticed it, you can always keep up with new RoundTable comments through the 'Recent Comments' list on the front page.)

Thanks again for all the contributions!

From an entirely selfish perspective I would like you to expand your internet business to become a one-stop shop for all things related to Japanese woodblocks.

The business that now passes through the Baren Mall as a volunteer-powered service might be better served with you as a paid middle-man, and I suspect the business would grow with more attention. The range and presentation of products could be greatly improved with your range of skills.

With the removal of the language barrier and with your expertise both artists and producers would benefit. New products could grow the business in ways that might be surprising; production of custom made paper for instance, or perhaps the printing or carving of blocks. I would like the chance to purchase traditional Japanese frames.

There is a real hole in the market for a well built woodblock business operating from Japan.

OK, I'll try to 'reply' to some of the suggestions and thoughts expressed in the comments so far, keeping in mind that this is all in the nature of 'brainstorming' - dumping possible ideas onto the table. It is against the whole spirit of a brainstorming session to talk about why something is not possible, but I think that it wouldn't hurt to chat about why I haven't done some of these things yet ...

1) The shop that Tom mentioned, supplying wood-block related goods around the world. Back when the internet was first getting started and I opened my website - which was incredibly more than 13 years ago! - the idea came up to do this. I talked myself out of it for what was in reality a pretty silly reason - pride. I was making a living at making woodblock prints, was very proud of that, and felt that I didn't want to do anything that would make people think, "Oh Dave, yeah he makes prints, but you know he really is only able to make a living because of his supply business." There are lots of people who call themselves 'printmakers' but who are actually university professors, or something, and I felt it was important to me to be a 100% 'pure' printmaker.

Go ahead, laugh if you will, but this was important to me. There are hundreds of foreigners here in Japan doing 'something with traditional arts', but who are in reality making a living as English teachers. (The last English class in my home was held in the spring of 1991, and I have been 'nothing but' a printmaker since then.)

But I guess that by now, I've proved my point - that I can indeed support myself with my baren - and having a supply shop would clearly be 'a good thing'. I haven't done it though, for two main reasons. First is that there are alternate supply sources for people nowadays, namely the Baren Mall (which I built for that group when it went 'independent') and the McClain's business over in the US, and it would seem a bit anti-social to step in and use my experience and reputation to go into open competition with them. But the second reason is more complex: if I were to have a shop with tools and supplies, I would have to stand behind those products. "This is good stuff! I selected it myself!" But with the tools and supplies that are on the market these days, I simply can't do that. It's crap. All of it. Without exception. Without exaggeration.

Well actually, I do exaggerate ... slightly. I saw some absolutely beautiful barens when I visited Goto-san's place last month, and lusted after them mightily, but for the most part, my comment stands. The paper we get, the blocks we get, the knife blades (don't make me laugh!) ... it is all of a quality far below even what I myself remember from when I first came to Japan. For the really old craftsmen, who might remember pre-war stuff, I can only imagine what they are thinking ...

So I don't know ... could I really, in good conscience, open a shop selling contemporary tools and supplies? Perhaps I'm simply 'over-thinking' this; perhaps nobody expects the products to be as good as what was available 100 years ago.

But Tom also wrote this:

The range and presentation of products could be greatly improved ...

... and perhaps this is a way through the conundrum. If the Mokuhankan concept that I am 'imagining' in this series of posts were to become a real thing, then as part of our own sourcing of tools and supplies, we would be pushing for better quality stuff. I'm trying to do that now, but I buy such small amounts that I have no 'power' at all; I'm simply a 'noisy' customer. But if the business grew to a point where we started to have strong influence with the suppliers, we could really perform a useful function to society. So OK Tom, fair enough. I'll throw this into the mix, and will add it to the spreadsheets with which I am trying to work out whether or not this whole thing is indeed possible.

2) Risk. It was hugely interesting to see Marc bring this up. Why? Because in all my calculations and thinking about this and that, and the trade-offs, and how I want to spend my days, and etc. and etc., this hasn't come up. It isn't a factor that really concerns me. When I mentioned in the post above that I would maybe get broke, I put a :-) after it!

So the 'quick-n-easy' answer to Marc is that, "If I were the kind of person who worried overmuch about risk, I'd still be back in Canada working for the music shop!" But a more thorough answer would have to address his point that 'the young Dave' and 'the now Dave' should be managing risk differently, and to that I have no ready reply. He's basically right; it would be foolish to do something that would put my current - reasonably stable - situation at 'risk'.

In practice, what will this mean? Actually not much, for the simple reason that I won't actually be able to get into trouble - at least not at first - because there is no way on earth that I will be able to borrow money to initiate the kind of venture that I will be describing. Japanese banks would just laugh at me. Even my own bank - the one I have been dealing with for nearly 25 years - would show me the door. I had an interesting confirmation of this about three or four years ago; I didn't have enough cash to pay the deposit for that year's exhibition, so went to my bank to ask for a short term loan to cover me for a few months (I forget the exact amount; it was something like $4,000). This was the bank that was currently carrying my mortgage, which was around 70% paid off, and which I had never been late on, and they said no. Why? Because I was 'unemployed', and had no sponsor. (And by needing the loan in the first place, I was proving to them that I had 'problems' ...)

So whatever I do will have to be self-financed, and will thus have to be along the lines of 'start small, and build from there ...' That's not a bad thing in itself, and hey, I've got lots of time! :-)

3) Teaching/Education. This is a big one too, and I have lots of thoughts about it. But I think I'm going to have to take a bit of a rain check. In a few minutes, I'll be uploading the next posting in the series, and after that will have to get back to work on the tracings. I'll get back here when I can, hopefully tomorrow ... Thanks for your patience!

And thank you again, for the wonderful contributions. I can't wait to see what of pushback I am going to get to some of the things presented over the next few days! (Trainee Premium? Is he kidding?)

Happy Birthday for yesterday, and what a timely discussion. I currently have a frozen shoulder which snuck up with sudden intensity. (Pain, no sleep no ability to use my dominant arm, even dressing is hard). So I have had to deal with a major awful 'what if I cannot make prints anymore' set of thoughts.
I would offer another possible string to your bow which again depends on your world wide client base. Do a deal with the major Come to Japan tourist agency and plan a potential visit for those interested in printmaking. You get them to sort out all the bookings processing etc, your job is to create a list of people and places such people would be interested in visiting, galleries etc. If it is feasable to contact Universities or art schools to provide a pool of students to actually act as guides that would encourage individuals to brave what to outsiders seems like a difficult maze to get around that is Japan.

If you included yourself on the visiting list then there is a potential to increase your customer base. Each trip may have to be tweaked according to what exhibitions are currently around, or even a one off around the Moku Hanga Forum next year in Tokyo.

You could not be expected to physically take people round, but pitch it to the Japan tourist people that your influence would attract potential visitors.. for a fee of course.

I know there is a government agency for Japan Tourism in London. There are plenty of small groups travelling to gardens, temples etc but I have failed to track any specialising in the art.

I understand the difficulty in creating 'grand plans' with all the necessary research, wasted trips and chasing contacts involved to be balanced against day to day battling to achieve a satisfactory days work. Remember to build in 'smell the roses' time or I suppose I should say admire the cherry blossom time. It is important to recharge batteries!

Enjoy the journey and Be happy You have a lot of support out there.

Let me wish you a happy birthday, how could I forget you share the same birthday as my son in the Marines !!! Here is Veteran's Day and yesterday was "Marines Birthday" so he has been celebrating three occasions !

A few years back I tried to talk you into transferring part of the Mall business to your own. I can't recall the reasons why you said no but I thought the timing was right back then and it would not only help you financially but as Tom mentioned from our own selfish point it would serve to improve the customer experience and the line of products.

A few well timed seminars in the US or Europe in line with your annual family trips would not only help you financially but also promote your work and help spread the word about woodblocks.

I am certainly staying tuned for the next adventure, good luck my friend....Julio