Written on September 23, 1989 [Permalink]

September 19

Off to Tokyo, to drop in on Ita Kane and see if I can scare up some blocks. On the way I stopped in to see Kaneko, the bamboo skin supplier, and bought another bundle of skins (these are for re-covering the baren, not for Michiyo's attempts at making one). Shimano-san was duly apologetic for not sending any blocks, and promised that some would be forthcoming 'soon'. I guess I showed my panic at not being able to continue the work on schedule, so he reached into a cupboard, hauled out a block and gave it to me (gave it to me). He wrapped it up, saying that it was no good, but that maybe I could get started ...

I mentioned to him that I was going to drop in on Ishii-san, the carver, on my way out, and he told me that Ishii-san was not in today, but doing a carving demonstration at the Shitamachi Museum in Ueno park. Of course, I scurried round there, and ended up staying the whole afternoon, talking (trying!) with Ishii-san and the printer Noguchi-san. There were very few 'customers' in the place, so it was a great chance to watch them work, and chat about printmaking. Opportunities like this seem to be coming by pretty infrequently, and this one was very much appreciated.

September 20

Fumi-chan today took her first phone call ...'mooshi mooshi' ... and it turned out to be the Asahi Shimbun. We set up an appointment for next Monday afternoon. The call came from the Tachikawa office, to which I had sent a flyer many moons ago. Have they kept it handy all this time? Or did they get a lead from somewhere else? We'll see.

Went to Immigration today to renew my visa. In the morning, as I was getting the stuff ready, I discovered that my passport expires in 6 weeks, so I didn't expect them to give me the 'usual' one year visa, but probably 30 days or something, until I replaced the document. Well, they didn't give me a year - they gave me three!, and told me to come back with the new passport so they could re-stamp it. Great news - for me! Not so good - for Michiyo. Recently she has really been riding her 'Canada' horse, and trying to make me agree to a deadline for going back. The idea is that I can make prints in Canada (or anywhere) and ship them to the customers here in Japan. It'll be possible, I guess, but I'd sure rather do it from here!

September 22

Carved a sumi block today for a 'non-hyaku-nin isshu' print. It's a little print for use at the local 'bunka' festival next month. I'll be running a booth where kids can print their own hanga. 'Baren', the local print circle, hasn't seemed interested in this kind of project whenever I've brought it up, so I'm doing it without them! The design is our 'in-house' character - Tareme-kun, playing the drums ... Maybe a little more interesting for kids than Tenji Tenno!

Prepared 40 sheets for a run of Oeno Chisato [1-6] this weekend.

September 23

Printed the sumi on the 40 with no real problems. Found myself wishing for a baren 'in between' the two that I have. The baren from Seki-san, although a good one, doesn't have quite enough 'bite' for this kind of work, and my 'old' one has too much. Oh, to have a collection of them at hand, and just reach out and choose the best one for each block ... But at ¥50,000 or so each ... maybe next year!

Realized that my jar of sumi is getting low, and as it takes a couple of months to soften up some more, I'd better get going. Bashed up four sticks and set them to soak.

Carved the colour blocks for the bunka festival print, and ran off a couple of samples. I think I'll have the kids print on dry paper, as they will probably have too much trouble getting damp paper into the kento markings. This means that it'll have to be thin, and I think I'll just have them use a plain bond paper, to keep it as simple and cheap as possible.