Kan-Ke

Here is our final print of the year, the minister Kan-ke, whose 'normal' name was Sugawara no Michizane. He lived just over a thousand years ago, and is remembered today as being one of the most noted scholars of his era; one of my references tells me that in addition to many poetry books, he also wrote more than two hundred volumes of history.

I think that I should be careful when quoting from such reference books. Sometimes different books contradict each other, and I have had some of you tell me on occasion, in a somewhat skeptical voice, that 'I didn't know that!' after reading something that I have written about these old poets. It is all too easy for a questionable 'fact' to appear in one book, and then be copied and quoted endlessly, until it becomes completely accepted as true, some years later. I must emphasize that I don't really know anything about these poets at all, but simply sit down each month and browse through some books looking for points of interest ... If some of the things I say about these poets seem a bit 'strange' to you, then don't quote me!

Were you surprised to see a blue kimono this time? After all, I sent you the print of Mibu no Tadamine just a few weeks ago, and his kimono was blue too! I also seem to be getting the 'seasonal' feel of these colours a bit mixed up ... the prints I sent you during the hot months had an 'autumn' feel to the colours, and those I made in the last part of the year, were quite 'summery'.

It seems that my ideas on how to organize these things have changed over the past few years. At the beginning of this project, I really wanted to make every aspect balance; I wanted to send you each print just at the correct season to match the poem, and of course, printed with suitable colours. But although I have praised Teika's selection of poets and poems many times before, he unfortunately didn't do a 'perfect' job from my point of view - there are far too many poems about autumn. I realized a while ago that I have been using far too many 'russet' colours; brick-red, brown, sand ...

So I think that I might stop thinking so much of external factors when preparing each print, and concentrate on each one by itself; think 'What is the best colour for this print?' I did that this month. I considered a wide range of possible colours for the kimono, but my mind kept coming back to this blue. I rejected the idea at first, because I had used a blue just last month, but eventually 'gave up' and decided to go ahead with it ... But now I'm getting a bit worried ... What if blue again seems like the best colour when I am making the first print next year ...? I don't dare make it three in a row!

Thank you very much for your support this past year. I've had a great time making these prints for you ...

December 1995