The Lady Ukon

As this is the eighth print of the year, you know before you open the package that it will be a portrait of a lady, and you also know that she will be in a seated pose. It really was thoughtful of Teika to provide me with exactly 20 women, two for each year's set, one for the spring, and one for the autumn (this doesn't include the lady emperor, Jito Tenno, who goes in a different place). Shunsho then, in his turn, was especially helpful by posing half of them standing, and half sitting, allowing me to organize my print sets in such a regular fashion. Thank you gentlemen!

Lady Ukon's poem is quite unusual, containing none of the images usually associated with this kind of poetry. At first I thought she must be a rather forgiving person, but there is an ominous tone ...

Making these Hyakunin Isshu prints is very time consuming, and because I wear three hats (carver, printer, and publisher), doing ten of them a year fills up my schedule pretty much completely. But actually, since this series started, I have been making twelve woodblock prints every year. In addition to the 10 prints in this series, I make a woodblock New Year's card, and a print for the local 'Culture Day' festival. It is a refreshing change for me to spend time on these two projects. The New Year card is especially difficult for me, because unlike the traditional prints I make every month, it must be an original design. During the year, I consider various ideas for it, then as the autumn passes and the end of the year approaches, I have to take up the difficult task of 'filling up' that small, empty white space with something interesting ...

But before I do that, the Culture Day print must be made, and as soon as I finish writing this little story, that's what I'll be doing. Every year, for two days during that festival, I prepare a number of carved woodblocks, tools, brushes, pigments, barens, etc., and set them out on some low tables in the local Community Centre. Local children then come and use these blocks to make their 'own' woodblock print. I certainly don't use esoteric poetry designs for this job! I generally pick a theme from a series of old folk tales, something with which the children are familiar.

Over the years, this has become a very popular part of the festival, and the kids line up eagerly awaiting their turn to make a print. I stand there throughout each day helping them do a good job, and watch their faces carefully as they lift the paper up off the final woodblock. I am invariably rewarded by seeing a big smile spread over each face as they get this first glimpse of the finished product. They walk away beaming with pleasure at their accomplishment. Perhaps here is the germ of a future interest in woodblock printmaking; perhaps one of these little boys or girls will find this art as fascinating as I do; and who knows, maybe one day in the future, some great woodblock prints may be produced by one of these children ...

I like to think that I am planting seeds. I suppose that most of them will not germinate and grow, but one never knows ... And even if none of them do, there is still the memory of all those smiles!

October 1995