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General Update ...

Posted by Dave Bull on April 29, 2006 [Permalink]

Time for a bit of an update on all the various 'threads' being sewn at the moment ...

Craftsmens' Association meeting: this was Wednesday night, and it was really quite a strange meeting this time. It's April, and that means a new fiscal year (things here in Japan all change over at the beginning of April), reading of the financial report, election of officers, etc. etc.

Ever since I've been a part of this group, it's been the same bunch of (very old) guys in charge of things. That changed this week; one of the main leaders has just been hospitalized, another was there, but pretty much just in body, and the 'kaicho' (president) didn't show up until things were well under way. And when he did, he needed assistance to come into the room and sit down ...

But it seems that this situation has been expected, and a group of people from the next 'generation' down had been preparing, and made their move. It would be too dramatic to call it a 'coup', but there was definitely a change of the guard; three of the oldest members 'stepped down' from their positions, and they were replaced by three younger members, including Koike-san, the young girl who became a carver a few years back.

So most of the evening's discussions centered around these changes, and there certainly wasn't any chance for me (pretty much a complete outsider in this political stuff) to talk with people about work-related stuff.

But in an interesting development, I had my proofs, etc. with me, and had a chance to show them to Numabe-san, who was sitting at the same table. When he saw them his ears perked up, and we had a good talk about some of the details. And then - you can see what's coming - he said he wanted to do the job ...

He's doing a couple of Hasui things for Watanabe this week, then a few for the Yoshidas, and would then be free to do this after those two jobs.

I'll have to think about this; I do think he could do a good job, but I think it would also be wise for me to start getting some other printers involved with these projects ...

Postcard prints in the Mokuhankan catalogue: Package arrived yesterday afternoon - the finished batch of prints for #2 and #3 (the Turtles and the Plum Blossom). These are two prints on one block, and it's interesting that the quality level of the two was quite different. The plum image is quite a bit better than the sample I sent - very smooth colour, and a better overall colour balance than mine.

The Turtle print is not as good as my sample. He has struggled with the gradations, and the batch varies quite a bit from one to the other. But most of them are well within an acceptable range ...

I called him up to talk about it; he was quite relieved to hear that I found the shipment mostly acceptable. Seems he's been afraid of my reaction ... (Good! Seems I'm getting a reputation already for being strict! :-)

It also turns out that he did print them himself; I didn't push him to explain what happened to the blocks that time I called him a few weeks back. Don't ask ... don't tell ...

So, the first four items in the catalogue are now in stock. Unfortunately for the timing, I just couldn't wait any longer for my Spring newsletter, so had pulled the plug on putting the Mokuhankan flyer in with it, and mailed it out at the beginning of the week. So I'm not quite sure now just when to open this thing. It'll be a few weeks before I can get any stock of Hilo Bay, and don't yet have a proper sample image of Mike's print ...

Other news: I'm getting a visit on Sunday from Asaka-san, a carver working independently in town. If I understand properly, he used to live/work in Kyoto, but came up to Tokyo some years back for better work opportunities. He works in partnership together with printer Shimura-san (whom I have never met). I have a couple of their small prints here, and they are very nicely carved, although the printing is in an 'opaque' style on very hard 'card'-type paper that I don't like at all.

It'll be interesting to see what might come of the meeting, although I don't think I'll be able to offer them much (if anything) just yet. There's just no room in the budget at all for paying a carver too, at this stage of the game. What I'm wondering is whether or not they may have suitable material that they have produced on their own, but which they have no market plans for ... We'll see on Sunday ...

 

Discussion

 

Added by: Jacques on May 1, 2006, 8:55 am

Overall, I'd say this is good news: Numabe-san is interested in your work again, and XXX-san did the printing himself after all (meaning that I retract everything I said about him after all)!

Have you fixed a date to officially launch the Mokuhankan project? And did you consider consulting somebody for the best launching date? I'm asking you because I happen to know that Japanese people are very keen on being certain that the date they start any new undertaking is an auspicious one...



Added by: Dave on May 1, 2006, 11:12 am

Have you fixed a date to officially launch the Mokuhankan project?

Well, having missed that 'target' of trying to announce it together with the Spring issue of the newsletter, there is now no specific idea in mind. And because it has taken so long to get rolling, it seems that news of it has sort of dribbled out bit by bit. Newsletter readers now know that it exists, but nothing more than that. (Over the past few days a couple of 'unknown' addresses have accessed the website - so maybe a few people have Googled it up after reading that item). I have to put the online version of the newsletter up soon, so have to decide how to handle it then ...

I think I just really need one more thing in place before I can open it publicly to the point where I could accept orders - I need an 'honest' image of the Aspen Grove design. For Hilo Bay, I have now put up one of my own proofs; the final will be different of course, but not wildly so. But for Aspen Grove, we still have no idea what the final will look like, so I can't honestly take orders for it yet based on the computer graphic.

Japanese people are very keen on being certain that the date they start any new undertaking is an auspicious one..

Not sure just how prevalent such thoughts are these days ... I would think the Chinese are more into that stuff. All calendars here used to carry the markings showing good/bad/etc. days, but nowadays those have pretty much disappeared. The only special days marked on the calendar are just the same as in your society - holidays!



Added by: Jacques on May 2, 2006, 7:49 am

I'm sorry Dave, guess I must have read too many of these 'romantic' books about Japanese people and their customs before admiral Perry came rushing in...



Added by: Dave on May 2, 2006, 1:36 pm

It'll be interesting to see what might come of the meeting ...

The meeting was very interesting. Carver Asaka-san came over together with (hanga collector) Doi-san in tow. They arrived just around noon, and we spent the rest of the day buried in talk and 'show & tell' about our prints. He used to live and work down in Kyoto before coming up to this end of the country some years back, so he knows everything and everybody ... I was able to get plenty of insight into the publisher-craftsman relationship, not least of which was an accurate guide to the kind of prices I should be expecting to pay for printing (generally quite a bit lower than I have been assuming).

He brought many examples of his own work for me to see. These are nearly all reproductions of nihon-ga style paintings, commissioned by various publishers from the workshop he and Shimura-san run. The works are generally quite large, and need an extremely complex iro-wake (colour analysis/block breakdown).

This kind of work - reproducing paintings exactly - isn't my personal taste, as it involves using opaque pigments in multiple overlays to mimic the appearance of the painting, and to me, that causes much of the inherent attractiveness of a woodblock print to be lost completely. But no question ... these guys are good at it. A typical print takes the two of them 3~4 months to complete, usually in an edition of 200 or so.

A very interesting day, and an excellent learning day! (They are 'booked up' for around half a year in advance, so there isn't really any chance that we can do anything together in the near future ...)

I think I just really need one more thing ... an 'honest' image of the Aspen Grove design.

As mentioned on the Aspen Grove thread, sounds like this is now on the way!



 

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