Written on March 31, 1990 [Permalink]

March 26

A call today from Terakado-sensei, the final customer yet to reply to the query about 'one more year?'. I didn't really understand her super polite language, but I got the drift. She is content with one set, and does not wish to receive any more. So our average is pretty good, eight out of nine will be staying on.

Yamashita-san also called, to tell me that he had received a copy of Shukan Jiji in the mail, so I beetled on over there to have a look. The article looks fine, with a good layout, interesting pictures, and a good little description. But again we have been sunk before we have a chance - he has listed the price as 'available in a set of 10 prints 100,000 each'. What will people think of that? Each print? Each set? 100,000 yen! Why couldn't he simply have said 10,000 per copy, as the 'Foto' article did last year? There is no way that this article is going to do anything for us with this kind of price description. It's simply just another nice set of pictures for the file.

March 27~30

Slogging away at Sei Shonagon's [2-2] kimono patterns I'm enjoying the new workroom a lot. When I start printing, I'll miss the north light coming in across the workbench, and I guess I'll have to get a desk lamp, but overall, it's much more comfortable.

Ashida-san has now made up folders for all the Koko Tenno [2-1] prints, and 82 of them are stashed away, ready for customers. We also have eight sets of last year's prints wrapped and waiting. She is now doing the preparation for the folders for the next print. Her folder making work is now completely indistinguishable from mine. By then end of the week she should have earned about 75,000 for the month. Considering that she has prepared over 200 prints for shipping, I've got no complaint!

March 31

An interesting day. Yamashita-san had asked us out for lunch and cherry viewing today, but as it was raining, there was a slight change in plans. We went for the lunch, a chinese feast in a private room of a good local restaurant, and then headed off to Baiganji temple in Ome, to see their famous 'sudare-zakura' tree. One of the artists whose work Yamashita-san has been buying lives next door, and we bumped into him as we were parking the car. Of course, he asked us in for a few minutes. It seems that this man, Mr. Usami, is one of the big, big heavies in the 'nihon-ga' scene, and the house looks it! I've been in some wealthy people's homes before, but this one was the real McCoy. His reception room was only rebuilt a couple of weeks ago, and it is the most restrained, elegant room I have ever sat in. There was no question of any ostentation, and the fact that he is probably a multi-millionaire didn't intrude at all. It was simply comfortable. We chatted for a few minutes, and then took our leave. We got a peek at his studio, and it fits the classic image of 'famous ateliers' that I've seen in photos - racks and racks of pigments and mountains of books and papers all surrounding his painting cushion, looking over a stunning miniature garden. Truly a dream environment .....

Yamashita-san will be sending him (and Matsushita-san, another painter friend of his) a copy of last week's magazine, and who knows, maybe this contact will lead to something. I don't think Mr. Usami is generally very interested in such 'low' art forms as hanga, but he might be intrigued by what I am doing. We'll see.

Michiyo is tonight finishing up the translations of the articles for the newsletter, and the photos of Shimano-san have come back from the developer (they look great), so I'll have to get the stuff off to the Moritas in Osaka for production on their DTP setup. They had said that they were going to send some samples of work so that I could see what their system is capable of, but nothing has shown up yet.