Written on July 7, 1992 [Permalink]

June 28

Most of the day with the kids at Ozawa-san's place and picnicking at the river, but got the name labels for Fukayabu done in the evening. (It's unusual nowadays to do them after the print is finished. I usually print them during the colour block carving, so that Ashida-san can get going with the folder making ...)

July 3

A good solid week of carving. The 'chipping off' problem is having an interesting side effect... When I do the little 'lunettes' on the kimono pattern, I scoop out the inside section first, and then do the outside of the lines. Because the hanshita comes off as soon as the inside is done, the wood is completely bare when it is time to do the outside carving, and as a result, it is very easy to see where the knife is going, and the lines are coming out beautifully thin. If I take care when I'm printing, and don't press too hard, they should look great!

Took the day off carving today and went to Tokyo. Stopped at Shimizu and picked up a few knife blades (left-handed!), and also went to Takano to take some photographs of the gallery for help with preparation for next January. Also spend hours slogging around trying different colour-copy service centers, trying to find a machine that would make a hanshita that won't chip off so easily. They all turned out the same, and it seems that as the last step in making a colour copy the machines all add a thin layer of oil to the image, and this is the reason the hanshita is not sticking well ... I went back to the same place that I got the last hanshita to see what he had to say about this, and the guy there (Kuno-san) had a couple of possible answers. The first was to simply wipe off the oil with alcohol to improve the bonding. We tried a bit, and it definitely makes the paper less 'shiny'. It should work. His second suggestion was even more interesting. It turns out that his machine is capable of making mirror-image copies, and if I get a 'backwards' copy made, and then paste it onto the block face-up, the oil will not come in contact with the wood and should cause no problems. Not only that, but as the image will be incredible sharp and clear and the carving should be much easier. This is very exciting, and I had him make both styles of copy for me, for each of the next two prints. My only problem now is to try and decide which of these three ways to try for the next print ...

The kumiai dinner was also interesting this time. There were only about 20 guys there (the attendance seems to be dropping every single time) and it looked at first like it was going to be a deathly boring evening. I got sat down with the 'young' guys at the '...-kun' end of the table (Numabe-san, Hiroshige-san, and a new one for me, Komuro-san), and we ended up having a good conversation about 'teinei sugiru' ... It turns out that Komuro-san lives not too far from here, in Higashi Murayama, and he talked about coming over for a visit. I hope he gets round to it, because he seems like an interesting guy ...

Had the interesting experience today of being recognized in a couple of places. A sales clerk in Virgin records and a guy in the copier shop both knew who I was from one of the TV shows. (Pretty neat to be recognized on the street in a city of 11,000,000 or so people!)

July 7

Shipping day with Ashida-san (and Ishikawa-san over to watch and get used to what goes on). Now that this is out of the way, they're going to start the next month's folder making together sometime soon.

Spent the rest of the day running round collecting paperwork for my next visa application. I'm going to shoot for a permanent residency this time, instead of a simple extension of my 'spouse' visa, and it's going to need a mountain of paperwork. Tax records from three years back, two guarantors (plus their tax records), two recommendations from neighbours, income records, family registers, family history, personal resume, etc. etc. Some of the stuff needs special forms, and as the local immigration office doesn't know the score, I have to go downtown tomorrow to pick them up (no mail service). If it all comes together, and gets approved (doubtful?), it'll sure feel much better having a 'permanent resident' stamp in the passport rather than 'date visa expires ...'

Carving continues ...