Written on May 20, 1989 [Permalink]

May 9

Cut and pasted a bunch of folders for Ono no Komachi. No decent prints yet, but the folders are ready ... Mailed a letter to Ito Hidefumi, the 'leader' of the Hyakunin Karuta Kyokai. We asked if we could visit and show our prints, and discuss his group.

May 12

Some free time before the afternoon's classes start ... but nothing to do ! No hanshita for the next carving, not enough time for printing, bunch of letters, etc. sent, ... How else can I get things moving?

Put 100 little photocopies on the floor and made a tentative arrangement of 10 sets. It works quite well, as there are almost exactly 30 standing men, 30 sitting, 20 women, etc. With only a couple of adjustments, it is possible to make quite well-balanced sets (light/dark kimonos, standing/sitting, facing left/right, hands raised/lowered, happy/sad, etc. etc.).

[ photo of the little sets ... ]

May 13

After the Fussa classes, prepared a deck of paper for tomorrow (37 sheets ... the ones that were cut when they came from the paper maker last time).

May 14

Got the sumi and 4 colours done today, but not without many problems. It seems that when I printed the black, the paper was not so wet, but when I started to print the first colour a few hours later, the paper had picked up more moisture from the newspaper interleaving, and was now too large for the blocks! I had to make it almost completely dry before it would shrink enough to allow the colours to register properly. Of course, printing on dry paper ...! Also, many problems with blotches, mostly from bashing into 'forbidden' areas of the block with the baren.

May 15

Finished! Out of the 37 sheets, about 25 are acceptable. The others are spoiled by blotches. Had a tough time printing the red kimono colour. Even a triple impression wasn't enough to make a smooth 'tsubushi'. After about half the stack, I gave the disk inside the baren a half turn, because the skin seemed to be wearing in spots, and that did it! Apparently the rough spots of the coil had dug themselves into little holes in the skin, and all the strength had gradually been disappearing. It made an instant difference. Obviously, I've got to change the skin more often.

Wrapped the copies for Sakazakis, Matsuzaki, Yamaguchi, and Terry. So now, I've got 20-odd copies of Tenji Tenno, and Ono no Komachi sitting 'in stock', ready to go ... where?

May 16

Mailed the copies to Terry, Matsuzaki and Yamaguchi. Today the next woodblocks arrived from Shimano-san. The last time took over three months, this time just a couple of weeks... and they look great, very smooth. It's going to be a wrench using this beautiful kind of wood for simple colour blocks, but that's the way it's done ...

May 17

Michiyo interrupted the first class today to say that somebody wanted me on the telephone. It was a Mr. Oda from the Mainichi Daily News, and we set up an 'interview' for next Monday afternoon. It's nice to get some action from those flyers! Where will this lead us...?

May 20

After the Fussa classes, prepared 10 sheets for a sample printing. Presumably the newspaper guys will want to see some activity ...