Saka No Ue No Korenori

Our final print of the year is from the 10th century, another member of the 36 Famous Poets - Saka no Ue no Korenori. As is common with many of these people, we know very little about him; a number of his poems have been left to us in various anthologies and collections, but of the real man we know nothing.

One of the Hyakunin Isshu reference books I was reading recently spoke about Teika's fascination for 'images of whiteness'; it seems that poems dealing with snow, or other 'white' themes were of particular interest to him. Now I'm no poet at all, but this interest of his I can certainly empathize with. Because snow and woodblock prints go together perfectly!

Many years ago when I was arranging the poems into sets of ten for my work on this series, I made sure that this one was scheduled for a winter month. As I sit writing this note, it has yet to snow this year in Tokyo, but perhaps by the time the print is sent to you next week - if you are lucky - there will be plenty of snow on the ground where you live! And if you are really lucky - it will actually be snowing at the moment you receive the print ...

The mailman will give you the package at the door, and you can then take it straight into your tatami room. Open the shoji screens so that the special soft white snowy light fills the room. Turn out all the artificial illumination - especially the ceiling light. Unwrap the package, place the folder on a low table, sit facing the window, open up the folder ... and enjoy!

Enjoy the wonderful textured softness of the 'washi'... In this gentle light, it looks like a sheet of snow lying there on your table! This paper is so beautiful that I sometimes think it is spoiled by all the pigments I print on it - I should just send you a blank white sheet of this paper every month! Shunsho knew better than to fill every corner of it with the design; he left plenty of blank space.

Enjoy the deep embossing of the carved calligraphy ... In this gentle light, you can see the sharpness of the knife and the strength of the baren. Enjoy the softness of the delicate pigments ... Under this gentle light, they blend together absolutely perfectly with the natural paper colour.

I sometimes think that using these wonderful natural materials and tools, so well matched together by centuries of experiment and tradition, it must be impossible to make a bad woodblock print. Do you find my prints beautiful? If so, it is because 99% of the beauty is in the materials themselves - all I do is bring them together. And I know that this is true, because every time I have some sort of beginner's printmaking class, the participants are always astonished by how beautiful their finished prints are - and these people are definitely not experts!

But without the right light, none of this beauty is visible. In a gallery, trapped behind glass under harsh bright lights, the prints die. Even in that tatami room, if the overhead light is on, the prints die. Yes, you can see the design that Shunsho sketched, but all the rest of it disappears ...

So if you are lucky, it will be snowing ...

* * *

Thank you very much for your support of my series this past year. Only ten left! I don't know whether to be happy or sad - I feel tremendous achievement about having come so far, but I certainly don't want it to come to an end! I shouldn't worry though; there are many more beautiful designs waiting to be carved and printed after this series is done. Many more chances to arrange these beautiful materials together in attractive ways. Many more chances ...

But that will be for later. For now, it's 'down the home stretch!'

January 1998