Minamoto no Shigeyuki

Here we are with this year's sixth print, Minamoto no Shigeyuki, who lived in the famous Heian Era. He doesn't look particularly happy, but considering the situation described in his poem, I suppose that's just as well.

Shigeyuki was actually noted for his travel poetry, and apparently journeyed extensively around Japan, from far south to far north. My reference books say he journeyed to places like 'Hyoga', 'Tajima', and 'Michinoku', but when I look on my map of Japan I can't find these anywhere. Of course, these are the classical names, and we now know them as Miyazaki, Tottori, and Tohoku. Quite a traveller ... for the eleventh century!

I talked a bit about carving just the other month, but I guess I have to come back to this topic again ... This is my 46th print in this series, and it is a bit different from the previous 45. As you know, in recent years I have taken a lot of liberties with the colours I use, compared with the original, trying to make more attractive prints. But I have never tampered with the actual design itself, and have always tried to reproduce the black lines as closely as I could. How could I possibly 'improve' Shunsho's picture? Well this month, I had a try at doing so ...

In the newsletter a few years ago I described how I photographically enlarge the prints from the original 219mm high, up to 366mm. Of course, in the process all the components of the design become correspondingly larger, including the carved hairlines. The delicate lines on my prints are not as delicate as they 'should' be. This month I followed my standard procedure, but before pasting the design down onto the woodblock, I re-drew the hairlines to a finer scale - the original has 28 hairs, but I drew 56 (I think!). So of course, I haven't really changed Shunsho's design, but have simply done what any craftsman of the day would do, carved the hair as finely as he could.

I sharpened my blade as well as I could, tried to keep my heart beat steady, and tried to wish myself down to microscopic size while I was carving. I'm pretty happy with the result, but am now beginning to realize that there is a down side to this. Tomorrow morning I'll be starting the preparation for next month's print, and I guess I'll have to do this all over again! There's no going back, is there ...

I hope you're happy with the print. Next month, Bunya no Yasuhide.

August, 1993

Translation - William Porter, 1909