Written on September 11, 1989 [Permalink]

September 1

Off to Tokyo, with three 'targets'. 1) English bookstore, for ammunition for creating my curriculum for the fall classes. As our telephone has not exactly been burning up with orders ... 'here we go again!' 2) Shimizu, the knife store, to buy a soainomi and a deep, rather narrow marunomi. According to the carver we met in Kyoto, these make up the most useful combination for the general clearing on the block. It'll sure make a difference from working with the tiny little aisuki to do all the clearing! 3) Last stop was IEI (Imperial Enterprises) in Hamamatsucho. This address was sent to us by Mr. Fujimori, the customer in Nagano-ken who only wanted one print. He said that he couldn't afford to join our group, as he was already subscribing to a monthly hanga series - of the 36 famous poets! I was amazed - somebody else was doing the same thing as we are? Prints? Monthly subscription? Famous poets? I had to go and see what was up.

It turned out to be a 'Franklin Mint' type of company, selling 'art' via glossy magazine advertisements, etc. The series he is buying is a silkscreened set of designs, done by a contemporary Japanese painter, in an 'olden' style. It's apparently a 'limited' edition (500), and each copy costs about ¥14,000 (monthly). He signed up (literally) for a three year term, to collect all 36 poets. I wasn't able to see any prints (it was just an order entry and accounting office), but they showed me a 'purty' brochure. I didn't discuss my work!

September 2-5

Most of the time this week has been taken up by the preparation for the coming English classes. The last couple of terms, I fell into a routine way of structuring each class, which made the preparation easier, but gradually resulted in a 'sameness' to everything - not so interesting for the kids. So, its time for a shakeup - I've worked out a new pattern for all the classes, hopefully making it a little bit more interesting for me too (if I've got to do this, it should at least be done with some enthusiasm!). Here and there, I have squeezed in some carving on Oeno Chisato [1-6]. The new sharpening technique is working just great, and sometimes when I come back from the sink (where I do the sharpening), the blade is so sharp that I can barely feel any resistance in the wood. Of course, I usually break it within a minute or so, and its back to the stone. I had trouble getting sharp at one point, and realized that over the few days, I had gradually changed the angle of the blade, by pressing on one side too much during sharpening, and it became impossible to get a keen edge. To avoid this in future, I have made a little tracing of the angle that seems to work best, and I'll check the blade against it after each sharpening. That'll let me know if I'm getting 'off course' again.

A phone call came in from 'Karen' at the Daily Yomiuri (English version of the Yomiuri Shimbun), asking if I would do an interview, etc. In the course of the conversation, she asked if I had received any coverage from other newspapers, so I mentioned the Mainichi Daily News article. She asked about my schedule and so forth, and said she would call back later in the day. That was three or four days ago, and she has yet to call! Would they want to avoid someone who has been 'covered' by another newspaper? I can't see why, as I don't imagine many people read both papers. We'll see. If she doesn't get back soon, I'll give her a call.

September 8

Wrapped up the prints that are due for shipping this week, and got in a couple of hours carving before the afternoon classes.

September 9-10

My first 'free' Saturday. Two of the three Fussa classes have been dropped (by me), and the third has been moved to Wednesday (here in Hamura), so English has now shrunk down to three days. So how much work did I get done this weekend? Nothing! Kids, Tsutomo-san's return from Canada, and a pile of re-writing pretty well took care of the whole thing. I'm pretty sure now, that there is no way I can finish this set of 10 prints before the end of the year. I suppose it doesn't really matter, as it was only a personal goal, not a public one. As long as I can keep to the 'one month - one print' schedule ... So far, so good.

September 11

Karen from the Daily Yomiuri called back today, and we set up an appointment for tomorrow morning. It might be interesting getting another article, but I certainly don't expect any business from it. The quarter page in the Mainich Daily News in June only brought in one - and he's never paid for anything. I stopped sending anything after the first two shipments (three prints) went unanswered and unpaid. I have no phone number, but a polite letter also went unanswered ... It's funny that my only 'gaijin' customer is also my only 'flake'. Everybody else pays very promptly, as I had expected they would.

Carving most of the day. Finished all the figure, and started the poem.