Fujiwara no Sanekata Ason

Here is the third of this year's set, yet another member of the Fujiwara family, Sanekata. He was a great-grandson of Teishin Ko, whose print you received in December last year, and a compatriot of Dainagon Kinto, whose print I made in December two years ago. I also found a reference to a relationship to still yet another Hyaku-nin Isshu poet in one of my history books, where it is whispered that he had a love affair with the famous Sei Shonagon. I wonder if it was this affair that inspired his poem ....?

I have changed the colouring of this print from the original. Of the 100 prints in the original book, 23 of them use black for the kimono. I doubt that this was Shunsho's specific idea, but was more probably simply due to the carving and printing crew trying to minimize the number of blocks and working time. I think that 23 out of 100 is too many, and although I'm going to maintain the black colouring on the dramatic poses where it is used to good effect, I will 'paint' some of the others as I see fit. Please remember that I constantly think of these prints in sets of 10, and not as single units. The 10 prints of each year's set, side by side, show (I hope!) a unified conception of colour design. The prints of the third year were coloured very differently from those of the second year, and the current set is no exception. There is an infinite range of colours waiting to be mixed, even when one remains strictly within the confines of the traditional Ukiyo-e palette. (I can't wait to see what the 1998 set will look like ....!)

I also noticed something else about Sanekata when browsing through my books, that he died at 40. As I myself just turned this same age late last year, I of course felt a little twinge while reading this. It also didn't help hearing so much about Mozart last year, on the 200th anniversary of his death at 35. I can't imagine what it must have been like to live in an age where 40 years was just about all the time that most people got. It makes me feel like I'd better 'get going' and get something accomplished before my time runs out. Then again though, I suppose I should look on the bright side, and realize that I've probably got a full 'Mozart life span' still ahead of me. (Anybody know where I can pick up a good used harpsichord ....)

I hope you like this month's print. Coming up next, the monk Doin.

May 1992

P.S. After keeping you all in suspense on the answer to last month's little question on the number of colours in the 'Ise' print, I have to announce that the answer is .... I don't know! Of course I know how the print was made, but I don't really know what the question was. Some of you counted the actual colours in the print, and some of you tried to count how many times I printed - and these are different answers. To make the print, I used three pieces of wood, on which I carved 13 different colour areas (including two blacks). Two of these areas (pink and grey) overlap to produce a fourteenth colour. So what's the answer to my question? 12 - if you count the two blacks as one, 13 - if you count actual printing impressions, 14 - if you count colours in the finished print. Everybody was right! (Or maybe everybody was wrong - I'm not sure which!)