Lady Suo

Perhaps it's a bit too early for me to be saying such things, but after nearly nine years of work, I find that I've finally reached the point where I can use the phrase 'This month's print is the last ........... in the series.' And what 'last' is this print - surely not the last lady poet yet? No, there will be two more female poets next year, but this is the last one in the series that you will see posed in a seated position.

She is the Lady Suo, about whom one of my books says 'She was the daughter of Taira no Munenaka. Or maybe she was the daughter of Taira no Tsugunaka.' Although I can understand how confusion about family ties arises when discussing those complicated Heian-era relationships, I wonder if the lady herself was in any doubt about who her father was. One hopes not ...

This is the eighth print of this year's set, and here we are half-way through November. November! Looking at the calendar I see that there are just over six weeks left in the year - and I still have two prints left to make! When I was first planning this series back in 1989, I calculated that it would be possible to make 10 prints each year without too much pressure. I wasn't able to keep to that schedule in the beginning, and was only able to display 9 prints at the first exhibition, but I caught up during the following year, and since then have managed to finish 'in time' each year. In the early days of the project I had a great deal of other work to do in addition to the printmaking: teaching English four days a week, making wooden toys, working on re-writes of Japanese/English translations, and taking a big part in bringing up my two daughters. But the prints still came out - month after month ...

How is it then, that with English classes finished five years ago, with no toymaking and rewriting competing for time, and with my daughters living somewhere else, I've managed to get a month behind in the schedule? Surely I should have finished this year a month ahead of time! The answer, of course, is that no sooner do I manage to 'unload' something from my timetable, than something else moves in to replace it ... I'm not building toys - but I've built a huge and comprehensive Internet web site; I'm not rewriting translations - but I'm writing a book about some of my 'outdoor life' experiences; I'm not cooking for my daughters - but I'm doing schoolwork together with them via email ...

Each one of these 'Hyakunin Isshu' prints takes from 80 ~ 100 hours of work to complete. If I were to put aside everything else and do nothing but printmaking, I suppose I could have a very peaceful and relaxed schedule - 80 hours a month is actually only about three hours a day! But it's no use dreaming about such a thing. I've learned by now that I am completely incapable of keeping 'empty' hours in my days; there are just so many interesting things to do surrounding me and clamouring for attention. Even though I seem to have allowed too many things to take time away from printmaking this year, actually I've been very good at resisting - the list of projects that I didn't start is a very long one ...

But for the next six weeks I think I had better stick very closely to my carving and printing benches. The exhibition starts in the third week of January, and with two prints to finish before then (and a New Year's card still left to do!) it's time for some discipline. But perhaps you think I don't know what that word means!

November, 1997

Translation: 1982 Tom Galt