As for 'where do we go from here?', here is the letter that I have prepared for the crew:

To the staff of the Senshafuda project,

During the time I have been in Canada away from my home, I have been thinking about the future of my work, and the various projects that are underway. As you know, our Senshafuda project is not going well. There were no major problems with the Spring set, but since then, things have not moved forward smoothly.

I came back from Canada to find that the printing of the summer set was still not complete, even though it was mid-October. As for the autumn set, after months of sporadic emails back and forth, Seki-san has still been unable to meet with me to discuss the rough designs for it. I have seen no roughs at all for any of the future sets.

I am the manager of this project, so all these delays are clearly my fault, and I am not blaming anybody else. But it seems that I have made a large mistake by failing to transmit my _enthusiasm_ for this work to all the members of the team.

A project like this is economically hopeless; it can never 'make money'. So with no business motivation underlying it, the only possible reason for doing such a thing is for the pleasure to be found in creating something beautiful and interesting. I myself have that pleasure, and I thought I _felt_ it from all of you during the time we were making the Spring set, but it seems to have disappeared somewhere along the line.

To keep going along this way would be pointless, not to mention a complete waste of money (customers are not interested in buying seasonal prints many months late!), so I am cancelling the remainder of the project. The summer set will be the last.

I apologize for this loss of work for you, but I feel that I have no option. In my other Mokuhankan projects I will try harder both to maintain, and to _communicate_ my enthusiasm to the people working with me.

I should also emphasize that I am not cutting off communication here, simply cancelling one project. I hope that there will be other occasions when we can work together - although clearly this would only be possible with projects that are not time-sensitive ...

Dave

I understand your frustration...but there is always next year. Maybe if you start bow for Autumn and Winter they will be ready on time...I for one do not care about the seasons, just the work, but I might be alone in that

My best

Barbara

I think when taking on any new project specially one which requires collaboration between four people is understandable that there may be some setbacks in the beginning, I for one don't have a problem if the prints are a little late or toward the end of the season as compare to the start of.

However if you feel that the right motivation or chemistry is not there among the group then I can understand your decision to cancel the project. Would have liked to have a complete set :(

Hi Dave,

A technical question. In the fireworks print, with the concentric circles (the 2 on the right) with the little bits of color surrounded by blue... Was it necessary to carve each positive piece of the bright color indiviually, or was it sufficient to just carve and print a circle of bright color and carve only the negative out of the blue block?

Marc

Marc, remember that these colors are transparent. If there were a circle of bright color, that color would combine with the blue and become a different color. For instance, the ring of yellow would combine with the blue and be visible as a ring of green.

Dave, I still think this is a wonderful project and will certainly look forward to Autumn and Winter if the Senshafuda set ever gets legs again. I had been hoping that your team of designer/carver/printer would be motivated by a sense of professionalism and inspired if not fired up by your enthusiasm for this unique project. Finding the right team won't be easy, but I know you will keep the concept of a 'publishing house' in mind...I doubt if you would give up after only one attempt ;>)

Dale

Sorry for the late response here ... busy with Tsushima-san printing up a storm to get the Gift Print page ready for this year. (Going to be a very nice print this time - should be very popular, we hope ...)

give up after only one attempt ...

Well, there is certainly no 'giving up' on the overall concept here. Seki-san has a stack of interesting designs in her portfolio, and Tetsui-san is a basically competent printer. It would be silly to cut off from both of them. But there is no way that I can continue to try and push them forward on this particular project. I was ready to invest a clear 2 million yen in this project (500,000 x 4), but in return I (and the customers) kind of expect a bit more cooperation.

The other side of Mokuhankan - working with the 'inside' printers - is turning out so much better than I had anticipated, that I'm not 'down' about this at all ...

concentric circles

The little 'dots' of the firework pattern are carved only in the dark background block. The underlying colours are in concentric circles. Because most of the colours were already in play from other parts of the overall image, we didn't need to use any overlapping transparency to create 'third' colors, and they are all printed on a 'what you see is what you get' basis.

Dave-Got the summer 2011 prints today. They are great. My wife and I both thought we could lift the reed screen on the first print.

I see growth in this second set and as already stated"the time of year for each set is not as important as the end result".

You must make good decisions for your business to grow and I think we all cane support your final choice.

I am very happy to at least have these two sets.

Ken

I got mine today. They're very nice. Worth the wait, though? Yes, definitely worth the wait. No problem.