Chunagon Kanesuke

As always, the third print of the set is a more 'quiet and relaxed' image than the first two ... Fujiwara no Kanesuke lived in the early 10th century, and is also included in the set of '36 Famous Poets'. He was a noted poet of his time, and collections of his work are still extant. But his poem here seems extremely vague to me, and even after reading many translations, I still can't get much of a grasp on it ...

And what is worse - considering that I make my living working with them - I no longer seem to have much interest in even trying to figure these poems out. Let me explain ...

Back at the beginning of this series ('once upon a time'?), I found that I had created for myself an entire new world of things to study and learn. Of course, most of my time was spent at the workbench, carving and printing, but I certainly didn't consider those two activities to be all that I had to do. I wanted to learn absolutely everything about absolutely anything that was connected with this project.

I wanted to see how the paper was made, how the woodblocks were prepared, where the wood came from, how the tools were made, their history, who wrote the poems, what the poems meant, how to read the calligraphy, and on and on and on ... I even wanted to do many of these things myself: make the paper, plane the woodblocks, and so on. I was forced to face the fact that this was simply impossible though, and decided to do 'only' the carving and printing by myself, depending on other craftsmen for the 'support' roles. But I was still intensely interested in all these other things, and indeed, those of you who have been reading my 'Hyaku-nin Issho' newsletter during these years know just how much so ...

It was a constant surprise to me to hear from craftsmen I met, that they were almost totally unfamiliar with other aspects of the work. 'How can they be so narrow-minded?', I felt to myself ... 'They should be like me, eager to learn more! Wouldn't they become better craftsmen?'

But during these years of work on this project, my feelings have changed. Athough I had originally thought that I could cast my net as widely as I wanted ... and still 'take in' what I found, of course that was not true. My approach could be described as: 'wide and shallow' ... whereas the other craftsmen were: 'narrow but deep'. Now, more than halfway through the work, I find that I am also somewhere 'halfway' in my thinking. I no longer want to make paper, search the mountains for cherry trees, learn the poems, etc. etc. But neither am I ready to give up on this 'holistic' view, and shut myself away in my workroom, to focus only on 'deepening' the practical skills.

Of course, for a 'Canadian' mind working in such a 'Japanese' field, such mental conflicts are inevitable, and I am sure will be with me to the end of my days ...

So next time we are talking together, if I seem to have a bit of trouble remembering one of the poems, please be patient. You remember the poetry - I'll make prints!

May 1995