Written on January 5, 1989 [Permalink]

I prepared seven sheets for the first run, a mix of hosho and other stuff from the shelf. They were ... well, O.K., but not so exciting. Later that week I tried again, with some sheets of hosho (from Yamada Paper in Yaesu). When they were finished, and lying on the floor side by side in the tatami room for inspection, I felt that these were prints that not only pleased me, but that would be desirable to other people as well.

I gave one to the Sakazakis, one to Hisae-san (she had asked for it), and one to Mr. Koyama at the Toyo Bunko, the day I went down to ask if reproduction of more prints in the series was possible. He passed me a standard 'Request for Duplication' form, and I put in an order for 'bromide' photography of a dozen or so pages from the book.

I guess that period, around the end of the first week in January, has to be the time when the idea of making a complete set of these prints first surfaced. Some calculations based on the time that it had taken to make this first print seemed to indicate that I could produce an edition of 100 copies of one of these prints in about a month, more or less. With time off for vacations and emergencies, that meant 10 a year, or 10 years for the entire series. That was so much longer than I have ever kept at anything, that I was at first reluctant to even bring the topic out for discussion, but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed that the very idea of taking on something this big became the attraction. I remember reading a passage in one of Michener's non-fiction works, in which he describes meeting some students, and encouraging them not to be afraid to tackle large projects (I think the student was talking about something on the scale of one or two years!).

But at this point, had I 'decided' to make all 100 designs? I don't think so ... I simply went ahead to make 'some more', and see what came of it.