Written on September 23, 1992 [Permalink]

September 17

Trying to get settled into the carving, but a million other things get in the way. I ordered the supplies for next Monday's first CWAJ class, and had them shipped downtown to be ready for us. It seems that there are going to be 19 students waiting ... (I sure hope there's no trouble with the money. I shelled out more than 200,000 yen for the materials today, and if I don't get it back, we're going to get hungry real soon!)

Got a note from Richard Lane the other week, enclosing a letter from a guy in Kansas who is looking for somebody to carve and print his designs for him. I wrote to him with a bunch of information on the Kumiai, and Yoshida's place, etc., and also included a pile of newsletters for him. He wrote back today, quite enthused about them, and wants to keep in touch. He apparently found somebody in the States to do the work he needs, and I'm curious about this. Japanese? Foreigners? I hope he writes back.

Got the newsletters all mailed, and the last few prints delivered. Phoned Sakurai-san, who does a lot of the photography for the newsletters from City Hall, to ask about getting some P/R photos taken. I've got to get started on the promotional stuff for the January exhibition pretty soon. He was out shooting a festival of some kind, and I'll have to call again later.

Had to spend a lot of time with Himi-chan this week. She's decided that she wants to learn how to make her own clothes, and there's no way I can discourage her, but she just can't do it by herself yet, so guess who has to sit there at the sewing machine with her ...

A few interesting phone calls. One from Furuya-san, who had mentioned before the summer that he was going to try and line up some new customers at his bank. He wants to get together soon to tell me what's going on, probably this coming weekend. Does that mean he's got somebody lined up? The other was from Karube-san, the coffee shop owner in Kumagaya. She has apparently got three new customers lined up, and will be sending me names and addresses. She says they want to start with Tenji Tenno and go from there, but I hope I can get them to work on the newer prints instead ... In any case, sounds good! Also got a call from Okada Yoshio, volunteering to help with the January exhibition! I didn't know what to say. Of course, he could be a wonderful help, but what I had in mind when I wrote that little 'please help me' blurb in the newsletter was for some of the customers to drop by and help talk to people. I didn't ever dream that other readers would get involved ...

September 23

Another holiday from school for the kids today, so not much carving. This one is coming along well though, quite a bit faster than I had thought it might go. A couple more days should see the kimono stuff all finished.

The CWAJ thing on Monday was quite a lark. Two hours to get set up, explain what was going on, see to the preparation of everybody's design (19 people!), get them traced, pasted down, and then teach something about carving ... They have to have the key block finished by next Monday or we can't move on to the next step. I had warned them all quite strictly to prepare designs with strong bold lines, and keep away from delicate stuff, but half of them brought drawings that would be a challenge for me to do. I'm half dreading the next session ...

Sakurai-san is set up to come tomorrow to take some pictures for the next P/R. It wasn't easy to describe on the phone what I'm looking for, and I don't think he has a very good idea of what I want. Hopefully, we can sort it out tomorrow. This one has to be a good strong flyer ...

Got a card from Adachi-san about the newsletter story on the different editions of Shunsho's book. I guess he's not very familiar with it, as he questioned my facts about the two editions, suggesting that the poets were also re-carved. I think he's just going by what he sees in the photographs in the 'Issho' story, and as I neglected to specify that one of them was my work, and not an original, I think that that may be the cause of his confusion. Maybe I'll drop round and see him when I'm in town on Monday after the CWAJ session ...