Written on May 31, 1990 [Permalink]

May 20

Started the carving on Egyo Hoshi [2-4]. No kimono patterns, a very small area, and only a few colour patches. Should be a piece of cake!

If I want to be off to Los Angeles this fall, I'm going to have to get ahead of schedule for the last two prints this year. This being one of the easiest ones, now's the chance.

May 21

Seki-san phoned this morning, and asked me to get over to his place as soon as convenient, so that his wife could take some pictures of the two of us 'working' together. The people in Los Angeles need this kind of thing for making up the show brochures, etc. I can take my own printing gear, but as he only has one printing 'bench' (suri-dai), I will have to build something of my own. I have been planning to do this for quite a while, and have been trying to make a design for a carryable carving/printing stand combination, which would also serve as a case for the tools. As there's no way I can build something like that by tomorrow, I went over to Doit to pick up a bit of lumber, and built a little bench that I can carry over to his place on the train tomorrow.

Dropped round to see Yamashita-san with a small 'omiyage' from Niigata. (Keeping in his good books is going to need some work!). He asked if there was any news from the wood people, and I had to report that we hadn't heard anything yet.

May 22

Over to Seki-san's for the photo session. I wore the 'samue' that Emiko gave me last year, and we set up a mini-workshop in his 8-mat room. His wife shot off a roll of slide film and hopefully we'll get something useful for the Americans. I'm to take some pictures of the carving process on my own.

May 25

Not much time for carving this week, but finished the figure anyway, and started in on the poem. A nice treat came in the mail today - payment for 12 prints from Aki. I had been starting to wonder if we were going to get burned.

May 26

Off to Narita to meet Simon, who will be here for a week. I'm glad that he's going to be here during a 'not so busy! week (only 50-odd pages of translation waiting for me ...)

May 27

Loaded the camera with slide film, and had Michiyo and Si shoot a bunch of pictures of me carving. I hope we can get something close to the quality of the shots we've had taken for the magazines, but it's going to be difficult. Seki-san called and said he is going to send me the slides taken last week, and that I'm to send them together with mine.

May 28

Hagiwara-san the wood man called at last, and we set up for me to go with him to the lumber wholesaler tomorrow on his weekly buying trip. He says that the cherry has been brought to Tokyo, and that it has been cut ready for us. 'Ready for us'????? I had specifically asked that it not be cut if possible, as I thought that there was just too much chance of a screw-up. It sort of sounds as though that might be the case, as he says that the thickness is 40mm (way too thick for one block, but not thick enough for two), and that all the boards have been trimmed to the same width (Shimano-san's problem has been in trying to find boards wide enough!). We'll see tomorrow.

May 29

A good news/bad news kind of trip. I got introduced to the company 'shacho' first, Mr. Murata, and he seemed very interested in the prints; I think that he may become a subscriber. When we went down into the yard to inspect the wood, it was obvious that the stuff has been sliced up ready for furniture makers, and certainly not for print-making. About five of the dozen or so boards seemed clean enough for my purposes, but with the extra thickness, as well as the extra split portions at each end, which will both figure into the board foot measure, I'm sure that the price will be way too high. He wouldn't talk price, but reassured me that it would be 'OK'. Mr. Murata took me out to lunch at a nearby tennis club (fantastic food!), and we arranged that Hagiwara-san would call me later in the week to arrange details of payment and shipping (I'm not sure if the wood will be going to Shimano-san for drying, or back to Ome).

May 30

Today was the visit from Mr. Groen, the man who had phoned last week after seeing the prints at the press club. He brought along a friend from his company, who was also interested in seeing the work. They didn't stay for long, just enough time to eat a pile of Michiyo's sandwiches, and buy a pile of prints! He signed up for a double subscription ('I have two kids'), and bought all the back numbers. The friend isn't sure about the subscription, but wants a set of last year's prints. As he's leaving for Europe for a couple of months tomorrow, he will contact me about this when he returns. Mr. Groen took his stuff with him, staggering back to the station (26 prints in four cases makes up quite a weight). This puts us at 12 foreign subscribers now, just about 40% of the total. Amazing ...

Hagiwara-san called back with the details of the wood price, and it was just as I had suspected. Each block would cost about double what they cost coming from Shimano-san, and then I would have to pay Shimano-san for planing them! I had outlined my present costs to them very clearly yesterday, and had been assured that the price would be no problem. Were we speaking the same language? I had to tell his that it was impossible for me to take anything at those kind of prices ...

He also said that Murata-san would like a subscription, along with back numbers (as I had guessed would be the case).

May 31

During one of the classes today, Hagiwara-san called back again and said that the price would have to stand. The other day, they had said that they would be keeping an eye out for more trees, but he now said that there was probably going to be no way that they could help me. He also said that I should hold off on sending the back numbers of the prints to Mr. Murata. I am to send him a copy of next month's print, and if he wishes, he will start a subscription then. All in all, an 'interesting' experience.