Out of the blue a few days ago, a torrent - and that is the only appropriate word - of accesses began to hit our various websites, notably the Ukiyoe Heroes shop run by Jed. Over the following hours, and then days, my email Inbox was deluged with requests for new subscriptions to our Portraits series.

It turned out that one of our recent new subscribers - a gentleman who uses the handle 'Total Biscuit' - had received his prints, had been very impressed by them, and decided to include a segment about our woodblock prints in a recent video blog of his.

The video - a podcast nearly three hours long - is here on YouTube (our segment starts at about 9:00). Just who can possibly spend the time to listen to such things as three-hour podcasts is something I don't quite understand, but I am clearly in a minority here, as the YouTube page shows that he has upwards of 500,000 subscribers to that channel!

In any case, Mr. Biscuit clearly has influence in his community, and - at the moment of writing this - we have received more than 50 new subscription requests for our prints coming from his viewers, and they are still coming in, almost every time I check my email.

I mentioned before that our printers were overloaded, and that we were in need of more people, and I can now add that we are desperately in need of more craftsmen to work for us. The visit to the new Kyoto workshop that I will be making soon is going to be a very important meeting indeed.

If it turns out that they are competent, capable, and willing, then we can get through this. If not, then I have a very big problem on my hands! This project of Jed and mine to revitalize the craft by making woodblock prints based on popular culture might begin to founder on a submerged rock we hadn't foreseen ... getting too popular!

As I said ... when it rains, it pours!