Written on May 12, 1992 [Permalink]

May 11

A productive day. No carving or printing, but went downtown looking for gallery space - definitely for 1994, and 1993 also if not too late. Went first to Kinokuniya books in Shinjuku and picked up a guidebook that gives addresses, floor size, prices, etc. for every gallery in town. It turned out that one of the galleries listed was in the same building so I stopped by. A bit small and gloomy, and also booked up for next January. The following year is open, for ¥400,000 for six days.

I went looking for a coffee shop to sit down and go over the book more carefully, and bumped into another gallery doorway - Gallery Shinjuku Takano ... Jackpot! Spacious, airy, easy-to-find (and easy-to-describe how to find). It's right smack between Shinjuku Mitsukoshi and Fashion OIOI; very, very easy to find. There's more than enough room for the three back sets, 10 new prints, P/R stuff, 10-year plan display, demonstration area, and whatever else I think of to include. She had space for 1994, but was booked for 1993, but when we got further into the conversation it turned out that she had 'reserved' a block of three weeks next January for renovations, but only expected it to take two weeks. The 'extra' week is almost exactly the time frame I want - Jan 28 ~ Feb 2, the same dates as the last exhibition. The price - 100,000 yen per day, a 'mere' 600,000 in total. I booked it. Or at least, requested a booking. She wants to go over my stuff with the owner before confirming, and will call back later this week. If everything is OK, I will have to come up with 1/3 to 1/2 in advance. I'm not worried about the full fee as I know I'll sell more than enough sets to cover the cost, but I don't quite know where the deposit is coming from...

One problem is going to be assistance - unlike the Gallery Mon, there is no crew of ladies standing around to answer customer inquiries, but I expect that this will be the same pretty much anywhere I go downtown. Maybe Ashida-san? Or maybe I can put out a call for help to the subscribers. Perhaps some of them would be willing to drop in for an afternoon to help out ... There's also going to be a problem on the home front. I can't expect the kids to hop on a train after school is out and come down to the gallery like I did last year. Cross those bridges when we come to them ...

May 12

Another interesting day. Off to see Misawa-san, to get better acquainted, and to gather info for next month's newsletter story on his work. Unlike Yamaguchi-san, who is friendly but 'reserved', Misawa-san is openly glad to have someone around asking questions and watching. Although I tried not to 'bother' him too much, it was obvious that his production was way, way down because of my presence. But it really didn't seem to matter. I don't think he gets many chances to discuss his work, and both he and his wife couldn't stop talking about this and that for the six+ hours I was there. He works in a workroom upstairs in his home, with tight strings stretched every couple of centimeters apart across the ceiling. He does the sizing on a large metal table, using a goat hair brush just like the one Matsuzaki-san uses for water, but much, much wider. The sizing goes on both sides, after which the paper is stacked for a few hours to even out, and then hung from clothespegs.

I was surprised to find that drying the paper is done indoors, as I had always thought that it was done outdoors in the sunshine. Never. Paper dried that way apparently loses most of the size to evaporation or something. He carefully controls the drying rate by the amount that the sliding windows are opened. Of course it's more difficult during the rainy season, and we're coming into his least favorite time of year. I also found that he doesn't work alone. Of course, he brushes the size on by himself, but when it comes to hanging the wet sheets up, it's a two man job, and his wife comes upstairs to help. They work as a team, sliding paper tabs over the end of each sheet, lifting it up carefully (no creases), and then pegging it to one of the strings. This was a surprise. She spent most of the day upstairs with us, and joined all the discussions as a kind of equal partner, rather than staying in the background and making tea, etc. They have the latest package of my paper from Yamaguchi-san waiting to be done, but I'm glad they didn't do it today. I doubt that he could do a very good job while he was busy talking about this and that!

I left them the three latest prints, and I guess that I should send them regularly from now on. It seems a bit cheap to send them to the Yamaguchis, Shimano-san, Matsuzaki-san, and even Seki-san, and then leave these people out. All in all, I got lots of good bits of information, and should have not too much problem putting a story for the Hyaku-nin Issho together. Tomorrow, I guess ...

When I got home, I found out that the gallery had called to confirm their 'acceptance' of my exhibition. (Of course! They know a good thing when they see it ...) Now I have to rob every piggy bank in sight to get the ¥200,000 deposit money off to them (and naturally, this comes just at the same time as the ¥110,000 bill for that paper.)