Written on February 18, 1990 [Permalink]

February 14

Over to Seki-san's house with Himi-chan. He's got piles of frames, wrappers and prints strewn all over the place. This is going to be a big show - 6 days long. Thousands of people will be browsing through the stuff, and he expects to sell a mountain of his prints. I still haven't got my new Japanese language pamphlet ready yet, and had better get going on it. I'm going to need thousands of copies, and I don't know if I can find a printer to do it quickly, without charging a ransom.

In the morning, prepared paper for a run of Sarymaru Dayu [1-9]. I would rather get going on the waiting carving, but I should have some printing to show Mr. Kubo in the interview tomorrow. Printed the two sumi impressions in the evening, finishing at about 1:30.

February 15

English class in the morning, and then the interview and photo session with Mr. Kubo. He brought a sample of the magazine, and it was immediately obvious that this one could really do something for this project, as I will have the first three pages of the magazine, and in full colour to boot. He was here for three hours, and we went through the by now familiar routine: interview, followed by workshop photos, and photos of the finished work. He says that the story will appear in late March, and will contain both our phone number and address. Fingers are crossed! What with the Jean Pearce column, the upcoming Mitsukoshi show, and now this, it looks like we might finally be near making a living at this. Now, about that carving on Koko Tenno ...

Took a big step today. I decided that I'd had enough of folder making, etc., and that it was time to get somebody else involved to help with the ancillary jobs. Michiyo called Ashida-san (mother of one of our English students) for me, and she expressed an interest. She'll drop by tomorrow morning to discuss it.

February 16

Mostly printing, finishing up the 50 Sarumaru Dayu copies that I used for the Weekly Jiji interview yesterday. They turned out fine, but I sure had a lot of trouble duplicating the brown kimono colour that used last time. I never did find it. The man from Kumagaya in Saitama, who had written a card the other day returned my call. He says that he will be over at Yokota on Sunday and would like to drop by. He'll call during the day sometime.

Ashida-san is willing to work! We set up for her to start tomorrow morning, and do a couple of hours learning to make folders. An employee! Good grief!

February 17

So today, I became a 'boss'. Ashida-san spent a couple of hours here, and made up 10 folders. I think she'll turn out OK. She has a strong desire to help, and will be able to turn out nicely finished work when she has had some experience. We've set it up that she runs her own schedule (she has a busy family), and will do her best to keep ahead of my requirements. I'll have to start keeping a projected shipping schedule up on the wall, so that she can see what is coming up. For now, she'll be doing it all here, but soon she will start taking the small stuff home, and perhaps later on, the folder making too. I'll be paying her 1,000 yen per hour.

An interesting call came in from 'Sheila' at the Foreign Correspondent's Club in Tokyo. She has some kind of position coordinating art displays in their building, and wants to see my stuff to see if it is suitable. Of course, I agreed to send her a sample, and got it off later in the afternoon.

Worked on the layout of the Japanese pamphlet for Mitsukoshi, and just as I started printing it out, the word processor decided to start mis-registering all the output lines. Surgery revealed some dirty wheels in the head drive mechanism. I cleaned them, and put her back together, and she seems to have pulled through!

February 18

Down to Sekaido in Tachikawa to pick up 10 frame sets that I had ordered earlier in the week. Seven of them are already sold, and the other three are for stock.