Written on October 31, 1989 [Permalink]

October 27

A free morning, no translations waiting, and time for a little moment of truth - the hair carving. Now that I've seen "how it's done", watching Ito-san at the Arakawa affair a few weeks ago, it's time to try it myself...

Well, how did it go, you ask? Not bad! Although certainly not as good as the work I saw Ito-san do, this hair carving is now looking like the real thing! It works on a five-stroke pattern: one long, fairly deep stroke about a millimeter away from the eventual end of the hairs, a vertical stroke down one side of a hair, and a strongly slanted stroke along the opposite side of the adjacent hair. These first three strokes release a long, thin triangle of wood. When they're all done this way, the aisuki is used to clean away the bulk waste on the outside of the line. Then come the final pair of strokes on each hair, feathering the end down below the surface of the block, and removing the last bit of waste. It's difficult to describe in words, but easily understandable once you've seen it done. It went OK, with the main problem being encountered in making those two long strokes meet just at the exact tip of the hair. If the angle is off by an infinitesimal fraction, the hair will be longer or shorter than its partners. I also had a problem with breaking a couple of them after they were carved. This is by far the thinnest, finest carving I've done to date, and those things are fragile! Very satisfying ...

Also picked up the two enlargements that were screwed up last week. They look fine this time. I think that when I start next year's preparations, I'll order the whole batch of 10 at once. I could afford to, the way the print payments are coming in! Mr. Sato, one of the recent starters, has even paid a few months in advance!

October 28

Hoikuen picnic outing in the morning, and preparation for tomorrow's 'kid's printing demonstration' in the afternoon. I carved the blocks some weeks ago, but had to make signs, instruction cards, mix enogu, etc. etc. The weather forecast isn't good, and as the affair tomorrow is outside, it may end up being postponed for a week.

October 29

The weather turned out fine! In fact, a little bit too fine - the bright sunshine, and clear autumn skies sucked up the moisture so quickly that it was sometimes difficult for the kids to print. Things generally went well, and a few of the older kids were even able to make not bad-looking prints. The younger kids though, had lots of problems - with blots. Of course, they just weren't able to understand that you can't rub the baren over the whole surface of the paper, but must stay in the areas where the image is to appear. Next year, I'll have to carve a set of 'fool-proof' blocks, that can be rubbed wildly by a blind man, and still come out looking good! In general, things went pretty well. Mitsuyama-san helped out, and Sakazaki-san dropped by with his kids, and ended up staying about an hour or so, helping. One problem came from the barens that Mitsuyama-san loaned (only one of mine was useful for this work, so I had asked him to borrow some from the club members). They were all completely useless, being only about 8-10cm across, and made of some wire stuff inside. They were grossly uneven, and it was completely impossible to get any kind of decent impression. The only good prints that were made during the day were done by using my baren for all the impressions. It's too bad that I didn't see his stuff earlier, as I would have been able to pick up some cheap student barens from Sekaido, making things go much better. Maybe next year ...

[ pic of the print? ]

Next week is the main 'bunkasai' displays for three days, and it seems that I'll have space to hang three of the Hyakunin Isshu prints. Of course I'd like to hang all six, but other members of the group ... I'm hoping that I'll also be able to hang an information blurb with our telephone number, etc., but that may not be possible. We'll find out on Thursday, 'hanging day'.

October 30

Spent about three hours at the bookstore, collecting names and addresses of magazines that look like they might consider a mention of my work. Bashed them all into the word processor, printed mailing labels, and prepared envelopes for mailing when I pick up the P/R photos from the photo shop tomorrow. None of the recent photos that we have taken have turned out any good, so I'll use the same one that worked before.

October 31

Saw a notice in the paper this morning about the upcoming meeting of the Poetry Society of Japan, which mentioned that there would be 'book displays'. I phoned the contact person to see if there was any chance that I could show my stuff there. Presumably people who were members of a poetry society ... Mr. Lawrence seemed to think that there would be no problem, and he expressed a personal interest in seeing the work. He gave me the name and info of the society head man, and suggested that for politeness sake, I write a note etc., but added that I should simply show up at the meeting.

Spent the entire day (about 9:30 'till midnight) on the poem, and finished all but the last couple of characters. If I didn't have English classes for the next few days, I'd be able to get this print ready for display at the bunkasai next Sunday, as the colour blocks are going to be pretty simple. Home stretch!

Picked up the photos and prepared the flyers for mailing, but couldn't tear away from the block to go down to the Post Office. I'll take a break from English preparation tomorrow and get them off.