There's a (small) 'back story' in this one, but looking back now (from 2026) I'm not quite sure what I was thinking.

The design is not from the Edo era, nor is it particularly Japanese. I found this little old guy in a design album from the Meiji era. I had picked it up from the 'junk box' in one of the bookshops downtown. It wasn't made by woodblock carving, but seems to have been created with some kind of etching process, very very delicately done.

Why did I choose an image of an old 'wise' man? Well, if you look closely down near the bottom of his robes, you can see the characters 五十 (50) embedded there. This hadn't been in the original design; I had inserted it. I had just turned 50.

Was I thinking/feeling 'old'? At 50?? Sheesh!