Oshio-uchi no Mitsune

Another 'big name' poet this month - a member of the '36 Famous Poets', Mitsune is also noted for being one of the compilers of the Kokinshu collection. A very large number of his poems are remembered even today. This poem of his however, is certainly not easy to understand, and five scholars will give you six interpretations of it ...

I spoke before in one of these little stories about using 'bokashi' (gradations) on these prints, and how my image of what constitutes a natural-looking gradation sometimes conflicts with the image that many viewers hold. Well, it seems that this month's print is going to fall into the same category ...

A few weeks ago, right back at the beginning of the carving of this print, I decided that I was going to use a bokashi on this design. Those two long sleeves hanging down were just crying out to be highlighted with smooth gradations of colour sweeping upwards. In accordance with this plan, I carved two colour blocks for the kimono: a 'base' block - which covered the entire kimono, and which would be used to print the basic colour of the garment; and a second block - which contained only the area of the sleeves, and which would be used to add the gradations.

So far, so good. When it came time to do the proof printing though, I found that there was another decision to be made - from which direction should the gradation on the sleeves start? My natural inclination was to make the deeper colour start at his 'cuff' and taper off up the sleeve, but when I asked for advice on this, I was told that a kimono would never be put together that way, and I got a quick 'course' in kimono design. I learned that a kimono made with a gradation pattern would usually be made from strips of cloth sewn together in a certain way, but the gradation that I was planning to use on this print could only come about if the kimono had been sewn together in a way that I was told, was impossible.

Well, I thought about this for a while, and then tried a couple of tests - one with the gradations running each way. When I looked at the results, I was convinced that my original idea was the more attractive of the two, even though it meant that I would be 'breaking the rules' of kimono design if I made the print that way.

So what did I do? Well, I decided to go ahead and do it the 'wrong' way. I am sure that most of you collectors of my prints are well acquainted with proper kimono design, and perhaps you will thus feel uncomfortable when you see my bokashi. But I think it looks quite attractive this way, and I have to follow my own instincts when making these prints ... for better or for worse ...

September 1998

Translation: Tom Galt, Princeton University Press 1982