Since first starting up this Mokuhankan venture a few years ago, finding printers capable of doing this work has been an exercise in frustration. The first few prints I put out were done for me by Shinkichi Numabe, who is a very skilled printer (and my age to within a couple of weeks, as it happens). He is very busy. He does all the printing for the Yoshida studio (mostly Toshi Yoshida reprints), as well as most of Paul Binnie's work (some of which are quite large). Whatever time he has left is soon taken up with whatever he wishes to choose from the general work available (mine included). Because of his high quality (and his generally low 'hunger' for money), he has all the work he can handle.

I also had some work done by Shingo Ueda, who - at the time, about three years ago - was trying to establish himself as a printer for hire. Although he was nowhere near as experienced as Numabe-san, he was (is) conscientious and trustworthy, and he was able to do some editions of smaller size work to my satisfaction. But with very little interesting work coming to him from publishers (he got mostly postcard-size tourist stuff), he was forced to look around for other ways to support himself, and has since then built up a quite substantial business dealing in old books and prints (for which he has a license permitting him to participate in wholesale auctions). That business is flourishing, and he is no longer available for printing work.

There are other (basically) competent printers in town, but they are not all available for hire. Major publishers such as Adachi and Watanabe have their own 'in-house' printers - salaried workers who 'go to work' in the morning at those workshops. These men do not do outside work.

All that is left is the general pool of craftsmen in the 'kumiai', the traditional craftsmen's association (of which I am a member). This pool is now very small indeed, and the level of competence in the group varies very widely (as it always has) with a few people being quite skilled, and others working at a more basic level.

I was lucky for the initial Senshafuda project job to be able to get Tetsui-san, the son of one of the long-time members of this association, and he has (as we have seen) turned in a good job for me. But he has been astonishingly slow, and has still not yet completed the initial batch of 200 sheets of this relatively simple project, well over a month after he actually began work. Talking to him about this, I now learn that he is not actually printing on a normal 'full-time' basis - he is a member of some kind of jazz-rock band, and spends a few days each week (mostly weekends, etc.) with them. He also works on staff at a guitar 'academy' here in Tokyo (he's in the third row of this staff list).

Now I can understand this ... The job of being a woodblock printer really isn't all that interesting - when you don't have anything emotionally invested in the products themselves, as I do. And for young men such as Ueda-san and Tetsui-san (both in their 30's), the fact that you spend all day alone in your workshop means that you never get a chance to meet ... you know, girls. Both of them have mentioned this to me as a major factor in their decision to get involved with other activities, and I am in absolutely no position to criticize them for this. Young women here are in a pretty strong position these days when it comes to choosing partners, and 'traditional woodblock printer' does not even register on the list of acceptable occupations for a future husband.

So ... knowing about all these things, and thinking about how to move my little business forward, I swallowed hard, and talked to one of the printers from the association. I say 'swallowed hard' because this is really not the route I want to take. These men are nearly all approaching the end of their active years (which means it's pointless to establish any kind of long-term relationship), and the fact that they are older than I makes it nearly impossible for them to take 'direction' from me.

And that's exactly what happened. I certainly won't use his name here, so will simply use X-san. After he heard that I was casting around for a printer, he called (more than once) to emphasize that he was available. I had seen his work, which was only average, so was a bit hesitant, but he was very insistent, and even went so far as to jump on a train and head out here one day, calling me from the station to let me know he was in town.

I decided to give it a try. I pulled some blocks out of the storeroom, sliced up some paper, and sent him off with this small test batch. Of course I gave him a sample print to follow, and the two of us went over it thoroughly before he left, discussing exactly what I wanted. But given that he is about fifteen years my senior, the conversation was not 'easy'. Remember that Japanese has 'built-in' status/position phrasing. It's very simple to speak to somebody younger and tell them what to do; it's far from simple to do it with somebody older.

You can see where this is going.

The samples arrived a short time ago. Here are a few images (clickable). The first is my sample - which he took with him, and (presumably) had by his side when printing:

(The print is from my second Surimono Album, and as I am now down to the final few copies of my own edition of that album, I would like to prepare to release the prints individually in the Mokuhankan catalogue.)

Here are three of his proofs:

He has changed the colours, and done them with a completely different 'feel'. Not sure what you can see in those images, so here are a couple of closeups. There is all kinds of red spotting around the flower ...

... and a background completely streaked and blurred (the paper was way too wet, and there has been far too much baren pressure ...):

And these were the 'test proofs', intended to show that he could 'do the job'! What would he send back if I were to give him a stack of paper to do an edition ...

So our next conversation (on the phone this time) was even more difficult. Basically, "Thanks, but no thanks, and please send the blocks back." He did, and I sent him a payment for his time and expenses ...

And Dave now sits here, wondering if he is perhaps banging his head against a wall with this whole project ... Maybe it's better just to continue to work as a solo craftsman, as I have done for so many years. The fact that all those hundreds of blocks that I have carved would never again be printed, and all the 'possible' prints that could appear would never do so ... Does that matter?