Ryozen Hoshi

This month's print, the seventh in this year's set, shows the monk Ryozen, who lived in the early eleventh century. He is noted for being self-taught as a poet, but I don't know if this fact was met at the time with praise or disapproval. During the carving of this print I had a bit of 'deja vu', and realized that out of the last four prints I have made, three of them show a poet with teeth. Over the past couple of years of working on Shunsho's designs, there have been no teeth visible, just simple stylized mouth shapes. Of course, this set me wondering about dental conditions 'back then', and I suppose that people probably lost most of their teeth at quite an early age. Perhaps Shunsho was merely being accurate when he drew most of the poets with no teeth showing!

The carving work on this print was done during our vacation at Michiyo's old family home in Mie, and luckily for me the weather this year was not so good. Why do I say lucky? It's simple. Sunshine = swimming with the kids, walking in the mountains, and bicycle trips to visit friends. Rain = carving. Actually we had a pretty good balance this year, with plenty of relaxed enjoyment together, and with the final carving on the colour blocks being finished just one day before we packed up to come home.

I feel a bit guilty about having the kind of job that allows me to spend so much time with my family, and while I was sitting there carving I thought about all our friends and customers who remained in the city, working at their jobs in the muggy August heat. I hope you were all able to get at least some kind of summer holiday from your work.

I hope you enjoy this month's print. By the time you read this, I should be well into the carving work on next month's print, Akazome Emon.

September 1991

P.S. Don't forget to brush well after every meal!