Mibu no Tadamine

Although knowledge of the poems of the 'Hyaku-nin Isshu' is widespread, the poets themselves are not as well-known. I am sure that among collectors of my prints are many people who can recite all 100 poems, but I suspect that not many of these people can name all 100 poets, let alone match them up with their verses. Having finished making 69 prints now, I wonder if I can remember the names of all 69 of those poets? I got a bit confused when I started to carve this one; hadn't I heard this name before? When I checked back over the previous prints, I realized my mistake. I carved this poet's son last year - Mibu no Tadami.

I noticed while doing some reading about Mibu no Tadamine that he was apparently quite a 'big man' in the poetry world. He was one of the compilers of the famous 'Kokinshu' collection, and is also included in the '36 Famed Poets' group (as was his son). Reading about this made me think about what my work would be like if Fujiwara no Teika had never created the Hyaku-nin Isshu poetry collection. In that case, instead of making a series of 100 prints, I might have started working on a series of 36. I would have been finished three years ago!

Or what if humans had six fingers on each hand, perhaps causing us to count in 'base 12'? If that was the case, a set of 'Hyaku-nin Isshu' would actually have 144 members! At this point I would not even be halfway through my project! When I consider these two alternatives, I think that maybe 100 prints - a ten year job - is just about right. 36 wouldn't be enough to make this a 'special' project ... 144 would be just too many ...

How do I feel now, approaching the end of the seventh year of work? Well there is certainly no 'almost finished!' feeling yet. I'm only just a little bit past the 2/3 mark, and although it feels good to have more behind me than in front of me, there is still a long way to go. There have been many ups and downs in my life since this huge project started, nearly seven years ago, and I suppose there will yet be more before it is finally done. But of course, whenever I look at that row of print folders on my shelf, I do feel an ever-growing sense of satisfaction. For many people, ten years of life can pass quite quickly, with perhaps not much to show at the end of it.

At the end of my ten years, what will I have to show for the time passed? Not much ... just a rather small stack of 100 pieces of coloured paper. But each piece of paper suffused with memories ... Memories of ten years of my life ...

But I'm sure glad I only have ten fingers!

November 1995

Translation - Tom Galt 1982