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You should have seen my face when I saw what was happening ... three people who could understand my left-handed demonstration!

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Here's a closeup:

Just when will it click over? It might go tonight, but if not, then it will surely do so tomorrow, because we have a new video coming then!

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It's a simple statistic - on September 14th our gross income for this year passed the amount for last year ... for last year in total.

If you look at the numbers there, you will see that the figure for 2017 was just around 150% higher than 2016, and if things roll along for the rest of this year as they have for the past couple of months, we'll do the same thing again this year - up 150% or so.

That graph is for our business in total; this next one shows the figures for just the Asakusa portion (again, the final column is for year-to-date, as of September 14th):

What you can't see there is the seasonal nature of our Asakusa operation. If I graph it month-by-month, you can clearly see that there are peaks in the spring (sakura time) and autumn (best weather for travelling).

Up to now, things have tapered off a bit after the spring rush. This year, it started to taper off in June, but something else happened ... we opened up down on the ground floor. Just what is ahead of us for the next couple of months I have no idea ...

Update: If you read the comments below, you will see that regular contributor Jacques-san suggested he might be able to make a projection for this year, based on the data in the above graph. He just sent it over ...

Dave ... remember; don't count your chickens before they hatch! -)

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Building stronger defences against the invaders ...

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As outlined in the previous entry, I didn't dare leave the cabling as it was for even one more night. All it would need was one bite in the wrong place, and we would lose all our internet access, and would have to re-run all the cabling that I had so carefully prepared when we were doing the ground floor construction.

So I went to the Home Centre, picked up some strong plastic conduit, and once the shop had closed this evening, ripped up the tatami mats and some of the floor planks, and retrofitted all the cables to run through the conduit.

I had to cut into the floor in the same three places that I did when originally installing the cables a few months ago. Here's a photo from a few months back - during that construction - showing the place where the raw cables came up from the sub-floor:

And here they are now, safely sheathed!

Here's the location where they disappear downstairs:

Now strongly covered ...

But I had a problem with cable lengths. Because of the chewed out section, one of the original cables no longer has enough length to reach from the router down to the connection on the ground floor. And I can't replace it because the distant end of it is embedded under the flooring down there in the new shop! So although I really didn't want to do this, I had no choice but to splice a new connector onto the cable, and join it with a new short piece to bring the length up to what we need. That connection is safely hidden from the rodents, inside a metal connector box under the floor, where we can get to it if we need to.

After another hour or so of work to put the room all back together, I now have our internet all back up and running. And I was happy to see that speed testing on the spliced cable doesn't show any significant loss of bandwidth ...

Let's see what the invading army will come back with tonight!

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As frequent viewers of our Twitch channel well know, we have been having rodent trouble here at Mokuhankan recently.

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As frequent viewers of our Twitch channel well know, we have been having rodent trouble here at Mokuhankan recently.

We've known that they were in the building right from the time we began construction here in the summer of 2014, but we thought that we had 'arranged' a stand-off. They stayed in their part of the building (under the floors, over the ceilings, and inside some of the walls), and we stayed in our part (the shop itself).

With our move down to the ground floor, things became a bit unstable, because our construction work closed off some of their entrances, and we also destroyed a huge nest that they had created underneath the rear wall of the building, but overall, I felt that the status quo was basically undisturbed.

That 'truce' has now been broken. They have become much more aggressive, have made attempts to intrude into our part of the building, and two nights ago, staged an attack on our infrastructure - they took down one of the ethernet cables carrying signals down to our new shop. I was trying to get the morning stream started, and couldn't get a signal from the router. I traced things back through the system, and when I pulled away a cabinet in the old Print Party room on the second floor, found this:

A closer view ...

What's the food value in a plastic and metal cable? Why would they do this? Well ... OK ... they want war, they can have war.

Cameron has plenty of experience working in a very old wooden school building out in the country, where they had a real problem with rodents, and says that they were able to keep things basically under control by liberally spreading standard mousetraps around the premises. When I heard this, I had to mention that I think we are dealing with a different creature ... those were little country mice, these are massive - and hugely experienced - city rats.

But anyway, we have to start somewhere, so we got a bunch of good strong traps, baited them with peanut butter stolen from Cameron's lunch bucket, and spread them around the building, including one on each side of the hole in the floor where the chewed cable goes through.

Did we catch any the first night? Not only did we not catch anything, they made an attempt to chew through the second of the two cables! I heard them starting to do this during the night (I sleep in that room), and chased them away ...

In the morning light, I found this:

Now if that second cable goes down, we are in big trouble, because all our infrastructure (cash register, downstairs computers, etc.) runs through it.

I have just made an emergency trip to the Home Centre, and as soon as the shop is closed tonight, Kawai-san and I will move all the furniture out of that room, lift up the tatami mats, open up some of the floorboards, and will put those cables into conduit ...

Purely a defensive measure, I know ... but we have to keep that cable alive! (If there is no live stream tomorrow morning, you'll know what happened ... :~(

I'll keep you posted!

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It has taken way too long to get this organised, but we finally got our new shutter graphic image 'uploaded' today ...

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It has taken way too long to get this organised, but we finally got our new shutter graphic image 'uploaded' today ...

It was supposed to be done last week on our closing day (Tuesday) but the threat from an approaching typhoon forced it back a week.

Here's the installation just beginning (they are cleaning and preparing the metal surface):

Part-way done ...

Getting clearer now!

And here we have it!

It's interesting to note that our little shop has now been in business longer than both of our neighbours. We're 'old-timers' already after just four years!

The sad thing about this shutter of course is that very few of our customers will ever see it!

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Just a couple of weeks after Part One, the next part of the 'Beginnings' video is ready!

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I don't think anybody is expecting this already ... and I hope I'm not setting a bad example by getting it out so quickly! :-)

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Recent YouTube comments ...

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When I first considered putting things up on YouTube a number of years ago, I was 'warned' by friends ... "Dave, don't go there ... there's no benefit for you on YouTube, and anyway, if you do try it, make sure you shut off comments! YouTube comments are a cesspool!" and etc. etc.

I went ahead anyway, with a few short experiments, and then when Jed and I began our first Kickstarter campaign for the Ukiyo-e Heroes, putting video onto YouTube became an important way for us to reach people.

But what happened in the comment threads?

Simply put, my experience with YouTube comments has been incredibly positive. Each video has a 'Like/Dislike' button choice for the viewer to click, and mine are running at: 92,416 likes and 1,155 dislikes ... Can't please everybody!

As for the comments that have been left, these have been overwhelmingly positive - embarrassingly positive! And sometimes, they just seem over the top ...

Here are a few ... just from yesterday's batch!

• Wow! This has been one of the most incredible videos I have seen here in you tube. What an incredible story you have shared with us. I am speechless.
• As soon as you said you were going to do another story-ramble video, I actually started pumping my fist in celebration.
• You rock! I just found your channel 3 days ago and I can not stop watching!!!!!
• How the hell did I get here, and why don't I want to leave?
• This might be the finest youtube channel of them all. Such excellence.
• David Bull you crazy devil, you inspire me to get into the Japanese style wood block carving.
• Where have you been all my life?!?!?
• You sir, are an absolute gem of humanity. Thank you for sharing your story.
• Absolutely great story! Thanks a lot David, I hope that it makes you happy to see how many people are influenced by your work.
• Wow. Just masterful storytelling. Beautiful.

Some cesspool! :-)

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A new video is up on YouTube ...

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A new video has just gone up to YouTube; the first of a two-part set that will cover my early beginnings in woodblock printmaking, and focusses on the first prints I ever bought - a set of four designs based on the old novel 'Genji Monogatari'. They were designed by Okada Yoshio, and published by the Yuyudo Company in Tokyo in the late 1970s.

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The next YouTube video is almost ready ... here's a background view of the production process!

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The next YouTube presentation is so long in coming! Building the new shop has of course been the main reason for the delay, but with that work now basically done, I have got to get back to video work!

With the shop now in a new location on the ground floor, the place where I used to do all the video work upstairs has now been dismantled ... Here's a candid shot of the new setup, taken just at the end of a long day of video work (done on a Tuesday when the shop was closed):

The place where I sit is still a bit 'bare' compared to the old shop, but I am sure that this 'problem' will take care of itself in due course:

Facing me from across the room are the lighting unit, and the camera/teleprompter combination:

Here's what I see as I look towards the camera. I can't see the lens itself, but I know it's behind there somewhere!

The view in the teleprompter is actually a bit clearer than what you see here. From where I sit, it is quite clear and readable:

As you see in that photo, the teleprompter isn't feeding me an exact script. It's just the kind of thing that would be written on a set of index cards - the point being to try and keep me 'on track' during the presentation.

With the heavy towel removed, you can see how the teleprompter works: it's just a flat monitor laid on its back, with a piece of glass standing at an angle on top of it. The camera shoots through from the back ...

You can also see that the lettering on the monitor screen is reversed ... but not right-to-left ... it's flipped up-down ... so that the reflection on the glass will appear in proper orientation to me as I read it ...

And one more thing ... In some of the previous videos I've made, you might sometimes have seen my hands moving a little bit, just slightly out of view. I was touching the trackpad on my computer, adjusting the scroll speed of the teleprompter, trying to keep it roughly in line with my speaking speed. This time around, I have a better solution for that - a foot pedal!

But the pedal comes with a major defect ... it's really noisy, making a giant double-click sound no matter how carefully and softly I press the pedals. So ... the area around my feet is stuffed with a feather futon! It got very hot down there during the recording session ... but it's all in the name of our art! :-)

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We now have Genre Dividers in the shop, to help people see what kind of prints we have ...

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There is a somewhat embarrassing component to this post ... it exposes just how badly I can procrastinate sometimes! But let's get it over with ... I can now announce that finally - after four years of 'thinking about it' - we have finally created a set of 'genre dividers' for the woodblock prints in our shop!

Here is our main row of browser bins ... the kind of display that used to be very common back in the days when LP records were common, but which is very rare these days!

Let's take a look at the new labelling ... (These photos are enlargeable for more readable versions)

Compared to the old record shops, it's more difficult for a print publisher like us to display our offerings, because unlike records, woodblock prints come in many different sizes, with some being vertical and others horizontal. Here's the first group of bins - with our most popular items:

You see the names of the three most popular designers of the shin-hanga prints in the 20th century: Kawase Hasui, Tsuchiya Koitsu and Toshi Yoshida, along with that of Noel Nouet, who produced a small group of designs for the Doi Hanga Company in the pre-war period.

The Ukiyo-e Heroes section speaks for itself ... we are hoping that over the next couple of years we will get that series to the point where it no longer fits into one bin! :-)

Next to those prints are the genre that we call David's Choice (for want of a better term ...). These are prints that we make from the blocks that I myself carved over a five-year period from 1999~2004, in the series that I called 'Surimono Albums'. They range all over: landscape, figures, nature, still life ... you name it. I selected designs that fit two criteria: the image itself had to be interesting, and the construction of the print had to provide me with an opportunity to learn some new technique. The 'interesting' part of that equation seemed to work out, because these two bins together now provide 21% of the total income from this shop!

Moving along, this next photo shows some smaller bins that are a bit of a catch-all:

There are some more Yoshida prints here (that didn't fit in the previous bins), and we also keep the prints in our Guest Corner here. These are items from 'outside' printmakers who I have invited to display their work in our shop. I select them based on personal preference, but with a non-negotiable feature - the prints must use Japanese paper and Japanese techniques (the image choice is completely up to the makers). I want these prints here to help show the world that images of many interesting types can be made with the wonderfully flexible Japanese methods ...

That's the end of the first main browser bin, mostly made up of our own publications. Moving down the row, all the rest of the prints in the shop are in what we call the Mokuhankan Flea Market. These are prints that we have not made ourselves, but which we obtain from estate sales, dealer auctions, and other sources. The prints in the previous groups are 'new'; these prints are 'used'.

The genres are mostly self-explanatory, and reflect the popular themes of the old ukiyo-e ... beauties, landscapes, and actors ...

Most of the prints in this section were made in the 20th century by the major reproduction houses (Adachi, Takamizawa and Yuyudo), but further along the row, we have a (growing) selection of original prints from the Edo and Meiji eras:

Also visible in that photo is a (small) selection of Edo period novels. Because these are not single sheets, they are difficult to display in a shop environment. We let the browsers know that they can take these out, and look at them over on a nearby lighted table ...

The last section of our browser bins is a bit disorganised. This is where we keep the prints that come in groups - it was very common to publish designs in triptych form back in the old days, and visitors to our shop find these items very attractive, as they make quite spectacular room decorations when displayed in a group together:

And last - but most definitely not least - we now have room to display some of the larger prints that we have collected over the years. The 1980s - 'bubble years' here in Japan - saw the production of some stunning woodblock prints (and reproductions), and after the passage of a half-century or so, many of these are now finding their way onto the used-print market. We pick these up whenever we can afford to do so ...

So that's a basic outline of the prints you will find here if you can make your way over to Asakusa!

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Over the weekend, Suga-san made progress on a batch of test prints, so we snapped some pictures of a rare combination of people: the publisher, carver, and printer all together!

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Over the weekend, Suga-san made progress on a batch of test prints, so we snapped some pictures of a rare combination of people: the publisher, carver, and printer all in one place!

Jed Henry has supplied us with a new Ukiyo-e Heroes design, Chung-san san carved the blocks, and Suga-san has started testing them out. On Saturday, David Bull and Chung-san joined her to discuss colors, block adjustments and more.

Dave and Suga-san talked together about colors and printing techniques for this design, "Times Burned Bright". In the lead-up to a new design's release, many discussions are held to finalize all the details and catch any mistakes anyone has made along the way.

The team (except designer Jed Henry, who is living in the US) worked together this weekend to determine which sections of which blocks could be removed or adjusted to make the final image line up perfectly.

It is still a work in progress, but you can see the layers coming together in these partially-completed test prints!

We like to share pictures of scenes from all stages of the production of a print not only because they're fun and we are excited about what we're doing, but also because we hope that they may be of some value to others around the world. As David mentioned today during the morning's Twitch stream, he wishes we had these kinds of photos taken at printing workshops from the early days of Shin-Hanga, or even the Edo Period, ("It would be such a cool thing to have!") but the best we can do is make our own record here at Mokuhankan for those who come after us.

We'll keep you updated as this print gets closer to completion!

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Suga-san adds snow to the "Winter Ferry" design from the Mystique of the Japanese Print series.

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Rei learned how to use gold flakes this week, but she's not the only printer gaining new skills. Suga-san has been working on the "Winter Ferry" design for the Mystique of the Japanese Print series and needed to add snow to the print. This required some interesting tools and experimentation.

The tools David Bull used years ago are still in the Ome workshop, so Suga-san had to first gather all the necessary materials and tools to add snow here in Asakusa.

To create the snow on this particular print, the pigment is not applied in the same way as the rest of the colors, by using carved wood blocks and rubbing the paper with a baren. Instead, Suga-san needed to find some controlled way to spray the wet gofun (white pigment made from ground seashells) onto the print. Dave is planning to write a more complete explanation on the woodblock.com encyclopedia page in the future, so keep an eye out for that.

Suga-san first grabbed a print for practice and tested a toothbrush loaded with the gofun by brushing it against a hand-held strainer (much like the one Rei used to apply gold flakes).

Unfortunately the toothbrush ended up splattering the pigment with inconsistent droplet sizes, some of which were much too large, as you can see here. She was hoping for something with smaller, more regular droplets to create an attractive print for the subscribers to the Mystique of the Japanese Print series.

After some experimentation with different brushes, she found a long, very stiff one that seemed to do the trick.

Much better!

Because of all the white pigment splattering around for this technique, Suga-san was very thorough in protecting all her pigments, brushes, other prints, and everything else she uses around her printing space. Her newspaper barrier made for quite a sight!

Here is a comparison showing what these prints look like before and after this final snow application is performed. What a difference it makes!

To me, as an outsider who does not make any woodblock prints or have any experience with the techniques used in Mokuhankan's prints, I find the process amazing to watch and document. I love to see all the experimentation and adjustments that go into creating the high quality prints we send all around the world, and I hope you enjoy learning a little bit more about it as well.

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