This program came about partly because of a story I had written in my 'Hyakunin Issho' (100 People, Together) newsletter, which went out four times a year to friends, collectors, and media contacts. The story had been expressing my frustration at my inability to arrange some 'quality time' with any of the traditional carvers who were still working in the field. Printers I had met ... quite a number of them; we had talked together, ate together, and had plenty of interesting discussion. But carvers - as a group - are not such open and gregarious personalities, and my requests for meetings had all been rebuffed.

One woman in the TV production field, Ms. Reiko Furuichi, read this, and smelling an opportunity for an interesting program, pulled some strings (and threw some money around), and put something together. She called me up one day to let me know she had arranged for me to appear on a program she was producing on the theme of 'Foreigners who love Japan' ... and ... she had arranged as part of the episode, a meeting between myself and one of the most respected carvers in town, Mr. Susumu Ito.

The rest is history ... my history, anyway!