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 ...