Written on April 16, 1992 [Permalink]

April 9

Ashida-san was over today to do the preparation for tomorrow's shipping - getting the back numbers ready, finding all the right labels, checking the paper and tape supplies, etc. I checked through the prints, and stuffed them into the waiting folders. There were only a dozen or so that had to go into the 'junk' drawer.

Started to study the hanshita for the next design, Sanekata Ason [4-3]. It's a black kimono, but as there are two more of those coming up later in the year, thought about offering everybody more variation by changing it to another colour, perhaps a deep, dark green. (What is his real motive - perhaps just trying to avoid the difficult printing job?) I'll have to decide before starting work, as the sumi ban will obviously have to be carved differently if I go that way...

April 10

Wrapping and shipping all done. When the women had left, kind of sat around with nothing to do! Waiting for a block for the next print, and can't start the second print run of Ise because the weekend is at hand. That'll have to wait until Sunday night, the same as last week. Turned to the word processor, and wrote the first story for the next 'Hyakunin Issho'. That reminds me that there was a tiny little story in the Yomiuri this morning about the newsletter. Actually, I don't quite know why they bothered. It doesn't say anything about 'If you would like to read one, call him up ... etc.' It just mentions that I write a newsletter. Period.

[ can I find a clipping? ]

April 16

The second run (of 70 sheets) went pretty much the same as the first last week - sumi on Sunday evening, colours over the next three days. By Tuesday evening the paper had become too dry to continue printing, even with continuous applications of water during the day. I couldn't get the brown kimono stripe registered well, and it seemed that the paper had perhaps shrunk too much to fit. Dumped a ton of water on the stack and left it for the next day. Finished up on Wednesday morning, just before leaving for a kumiai meeting.

Handling the kento this time has been a real experience. There's no room for the slightest error, and even when the cut kento is in the right place, the way that the paper is placed in it still makes a big difference. It can be placed in there this way or that way, and the resulting difference in colour position on the far side of the paper can be as much as a half millimeter or so. You have to 'think' the paper into the right place.

One of the guys from the Hamura Kominkan came over the other day to ask a favour. I thought that perhaps they wanted me to start a print-making circle or something - but no, they want some English conversation classes. No way ...

Tomorrow Michiyo is coming home for the summer, and I have four months to get caught up. That should be no real problem, as the next few prints have no patterns on the kimono, and none of them use a lot of colours. If possible, I'd even like to get a bit ahead of schedule, to make things easier in the fall ...