Written on May 15, 1990 [Permalink]

May 13

A phone call this morning from one of the ladies in the karuta group asking if she could come over with a friend to see the prints. It turned out that they wanted to have one framed and shipped to a friend in Tokyo, as a gift. They chose Sei Shonagon [2-2], and paid me for the print and frame. I have ordered some frames from Sekaido, and after picking them up tomorrow afternoon, I'll ship this one.

I sorted through the finished copies of Nakamaro, and mounted them all in the folders, ready for Ashida-san to wrap and ship tomorrow. I'm not sure what to do about Katagiri-san. He got his copy of Kinto last month, but has yet to let me know if he wants more. He has been very erratic in his payments during the year, letting it go a few months at a time, and at the moment he is three months behind, so I hesitate to give him a call. I guess that it's better not to ship this one now, but just to wait and see if he calls ...

60 more sheets wet.

May 14

A day in Tokyo, with two objectives. The first was to stop off at the Foreign Correspondents' Club to wrap the framed prints ready for shipping home, and to deliver the new subscription to Sheila.

After that it was door-knocking on a few galleries, looking for a place to have some kind of exhibition. As there's no more P/R stuff on the horizon, I'm thinking that a repeat of last January's little exhibition, but this time downtown, might get something going. The first place I stopped at, Kabutoya Gallery, just laughed at me. They say that they are completely booked up for the next couple of years, and that most other places are the same. Gulp. I'm not particularly interested in trying to plan this sort of thing ahead until 1993 or 94. They recommended that I try a certain gallery just around the corner, and when I checked there, found a more reasonable schedule. They had space available this August, which would suit my English vacation schedule, and another slot open next new year's time. The cost was a mere 50,000 per day (60,000 for Sunday). It's on a back street, facing a brick wall with garbage cans stacked up, and has no, repeat no, walk by traffic. The only people that would visit would be those drawn by whatever newspaper notices I could garner....

I guess I'd better forget about the Ginza scene until I'm famous enough that they come running after me.

Stopped at Sekaido on the way home to pick up the frames that I had ordered last week, and when I got home, packed and shipped the Sei Shonagon that was ordered yesterday, as well as a frame for Mr. LaCoss, one of the subscribers.

In the evening before my Japanese lesson, printed the sumi on the 60, with a bit better success than last week. I'm certainly regretting that I didn't put the kimono pattern and the solid black areas on different blocks, as there's no way I can get smooth black without grinding into the delicate lines, and spoiling them.

May 15

Took the morning off work, and went out to Tama New Town with Takayoshi, to browse through a used book store there. Took the backpack and brought back a few dozen. This is a little bit dangerous, as it will be all too easy to start neglecting the work in favour of a little bit of reading ...

In the afternoon, did my local deliveries of Nakamaro. Ashida-san said that Suzuki-san, who had earlier asked for her subscription to end after three prints, wished to change her mind. She wishes to continue, but does not want any priests! That's OK by me, but I'm certainly curious why ... The other of the ladies who had the same idea, has yet to decide what she wants to do.

Worked on the colours on the 60, not finishing.