Written on December 31, 1991 [Permalink]

December 31

This evening I did the year end bookkeeping. Sales were up a million yen over last year, but expenses changed hardly at all, resulting in a profit of about 1,700,000 yen. There is now a mountain of prints in stock ready to go. We are owed about 630,000 yen and have 300,000 yen in cash. The November print was mailed very late (half Shimano-san, half me) and that money dribbled in, and kept us going through December. Of the 36 current subscribers none have yet specifically asked to continue next year, but as they only just received their last print over the last couple of days, I haven't expected any replies yet. There will be no print in January as usual, and I will then also have a washi bill (100,000+) and a Kogado bill (250,000+). We won't have that kind of money.

The hope, of course, is the January exhibition. Luckily, the kids have cheap tastes, and as long as I keep rice, soup and some tsukemono on the table, they are satisfied. For the long term, I have no worries, as I am sure we can get a hundred customers at some point, but the short term is going to be tight. If Michiyo wants to do another year over there, she's going to have to get a job and earn the money for it herself, as there's no way I can support her as well as us.

It was a good year for publicity, four TV shows, three magazine articles, and a bunch of newspaper features. My New Year's resolution? To try and keep this journal more up to date next year. It's certainly not very interesting doing it this way, in big chunks, as all the interesting details (interesting to me) get completely forgotten.

But the 'top' news of course is that this year saw the end of the English classes. For the last four months I have been a 'professional printmaker'. Actually, I don't think that there are very many such animals in the entire country. My income, small as it is, comes entirely from printmaking and related activities (writing, etc.). Now all I have to do is increase it to a level where we can survive!