Written on December 14, 1991 [Permalink]

December

Sometime in early December, I took a trip down to the Toyo Bunko to see about getting some larger sized negatives made. Soon I'll be having to make the hanshita for the next year's prints, and it would really be nice to get a clearer image on the blocks. No go. They have a standard list of available reproductions, and anything not on the list cannot be supplied. The 35mm negatives that I currently have are all I'll be able to get. My only hope for the future to get a bigger negative is to be able to get my own copy of the Shunsho book. I'll never be able to find a first edition, but one of these days I suppose I'll get a call from one of the used bookstores in Jimbocho saying that they've found a copy of the later edition. If it's in reasonable condition, and not too outrageously expensive, I'll have to buy it.

While I was involved with the negatives, I studied the plan for next year. I realized that four of the pictures involved kimonos with no designs, and rather than have that many grouped together, made a switch with a picture from a future year. Each year I seem to be doing this, making little adjustments in the future plan. I hope it settles down before the last year is here, as there won't be anything to switch with then! After I decided on what to do, I ordered the enlarged photos from the usual local supplier. They arrived a while later, and I'm starting to get familiar with next year's 'family'. There don't seem to be many problems to be anticipated, but some of the printing of the women's kimonos will get tricky, as I'm going to try using a wider range of colours for the edge band where the under kimonos all show, rather than simply using a solid red as I did on Sei Shonagon and Ono no Komachi. There's going to be no emperor this time, and three of the men have black kimonos (unavoidable), so I hope I have no problems getting an attractive looking series together....

The Mainichi story for Margaret in the Ichi no Ichi came out very well. She gave me three pages, two of them in colour, and the pictures are far more attractive than even most of the colour magazine photos we've had so far. It's a very pleasing production. It won't do anything for the business directly, but is sure a nice addition to the P/R files.

The Teishin Ko [3-10] printing didn't go so well. I seem to have forgotten whatever I had learned a few months ago about printing black designs, and just couldn't get a good smooth colour without blotching. Sound familiar? The time pressure didn't help either. The blocks arrived from Shimano-san on December the 10th, and as I really wanted to get the print out of here before the end of the year, I had to get moving. The prints from the first run were the ones wrapped and trundled down to the post office on the bicycle (no pick up service this close to new year), and of course the second run a few days later turned out better. It wasn't a very good print, either colours, printing, or Shunsho's design. It won't help in collecting renewal subscriptions for next year ....

Michiyo arrived home on December 20th for a 12 day holiday, and that made the last little bit of work go a bit easier, as she took over the cooking and laundry for a bit. She'll be off again on January the 2nd, for another four months. It'll be tougher this time, as the kids now understand well what is involved, and Fumi especially will not want to let go.