Written on February 16, 1991 [Permalink]

February 5

Off to baren maker Gosho-san's place this morning, with a double mission: get some photos for his article in the upcoming newsletter, and also to let him have a look at the baren, and see if the coil is ready for re-winding. Michiyo came too, and we enjoyed a pleasant, if windy, bike ride over to his place in Saitama. We got the photos, and a couple of corrections on the article, along with another demonstration of tying the bamboo cover. I'm doing 'OK', but my final product is still far short of being as beautifully tied as it could be. I made a few notes, and think that I can improve it somewhat....

The coil turned out to be OK, but the backing disc needs some adjustment. As I have been using the baren over the last year or so, the coil became a little bit flattened, and got to the point where it had sun below the little rim on the edge of the backing disc. A few months ago, I stuffed some paper shims inside to bring up the level, but he wants to shave that raised lip down a bit, so will keep it for a week or so, and send it over by mail. I gulped a bit, but as I won't be doing any printing for at least that long, let him keep it.

February 6

Carving all the way up to the first English class at four o'clock, got the face done, and started the poem. Maybe I'll be needing that baren sooner than I thought!

Just after the last class was over at 9:00 Jean Pearce from the Japan Times called. She has a couple of ladies who want to see the printmaking work, and wanted to know if Friday morning was OK. We set it up for the usual 'lunch and demo'. This time Michiyo is not so sure if she wants to be responsible for lunch - it turns out that the ladies will be the wives of the Brazilian and American ambassadors. I think I've managed to convince her that our normal routine will be quite OK, and nobody either wants nor expects anything fancy.

About an hour after her call, I did a double take and realized that I don't have a baren to do any demonstration! Called Gosho-san, apologized for the screw-around, and asked him to send it off by Special Delivery mail in the morning. That should get it to us sometime early Friday. If it doesn't arrive, I'll have to use one of the student things lying around....

February 14

Another week so jammed with activity that little details like keeping up the journal just fall by the wayside .... The block was finished by Saturday night, the transfers done the next morning, and the colour blocks (seven colours on three boards) finished on Tuesday morning. The visit Friday didn't happen. Jean Pearce called back on the Thursday and asked to postpone it, as there was some problem getting everybody free at the same time. (Gosho-san's baren arrived at what would have been the perfect time! I didn't have the nerve to call him back and tell him that it had been a wasted effort.)

We had a visit on the weekend from a girl who had dropped by the gallery last month. She's from New Zealand, is here studying Japanese, and is apparently interested in getting started in printmaking. We spent a few hours going over everything, and she left with a couple of samples that she printed herself. Visits like this are pleasant enough, but certainly take time, and I guess that in the future we'll have to schedule 'open house' days to try and avoid spending a million hours a month going over the same material with different guests.

The place has started to look like a factory the last couple of days. Ashida san and Shintani san have got cases, folders and labels spread all over the place, trying to get ready for this month's shipment. Being the first print of the year, blue cases have to be prepared for everybody in addition to the usual work preparing the folders, address labels, and miscellaneous paperwork. There'll be about 40 going out: 25 of the new print, 9 back numbers, and seven or eight to the 'freebie' customers. I was getting worried that we wouldn't be able to get the cases ready in time, as I had no block to print the 'Hyakunin Isshu' label for the case front, but a package came from Shimano-san yesterday during the morning English class, and by evening I had the carving done and 100 labels printed.

I ran off five copies of the Gotoba In print the last couple of days, trying to find suitable colours. I want to try and get away from the 'same old colours' that I've been using all the time (the Shunsho book only uses about seven or eight for the whole thing!), but it's very difficult to find good combinations. Finally settled on something, but not really happy with it ....

Between English classes today, sumi on 60 sheets. A bit dry, but no printing problems.

February 16

Look at this guy! The only problem now, is that the back numbers start to look pretty bad ... The colour printing went very well. Matsuzaki said to use soaking wet paper, but when I try it this way, with an almost dry sheet, the colour seems much deeper and smoother. Wet sheets just make blotchy colours, and lots of tamari.

Towards the end of the run of 60, I ran out of red colour and mixed up some more. Of course, I couldn't get it the same, and 15 of the prints are thus 'somewhat' different from the others. There are four or five spoiled sheets, mostly with tiny red blotches. I have to really grind the baren in for that colour, and sometimes lose control a bit.