[Baren]: The mailing list / discussion forum for woodblock printmaking. Baren Digest Friday, 6 November 1998 Volume 05 : Number 333 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: David Bull Date: Fri, 06 Nov 1998 16:36:56 +0900 Subject: [Baren 2003] A most interesting day ... Yesterday's twelve-hour marathon of visits and filming went very very well - I saw more and learned more than I can possibly list here. A few things that might be of interest ... Matsuzaki-san the printer was working on a run of 'fuda', which I guess translates as 'label'. You've perhaps seen some of these if you've seen pictures of Japanese temple gates; the white slips of paper with heavy black characters printed on them are stuck all over the wood in random order, pasted there by supplicants with some particular wish or desire. He was just finishing up a run of I don't know how many thousand, and when we arrived was busy with his 'kami kiri hocho' (paper cutting choppper) trimming them all to the finished size. Quite literally a scene from centuries past ... Ito-san was busy preparing the 'hanshita' for his next print. This will be a double-size reproduction of one of Hokusai's famous '36 Views of Fuji' prints. The grey-scale reproduction of the print that the publisher had sent him for carving was just to blurry to use, so he was tracing it again onto a thin piece of washi, line by line. Interesting to note that the wood he will be using for this one is cherry veneer - not solid pieces. He expects to be finished around the end of December ... The craftsman's meeting in the evening was a bit chaotic. Eighteen of us sitting around some tables pushed together, and with plenty of beer and o-sake on hand. I'm familiar with about half of the guys, and as this wasn't a 'real' meeting, but one arranged by the TV crew for the purpose, they didn't have any agenda other than to talk about me and my work. The guys who know me started 'explaining me' to the other guys, and some of my prints were then passed around for discussion and comment. (They got a bit splashed with beer and yakitori sauce, but that didn't really matter ...) At one point I asked the group about the difference (if any) between carvers and printers - I couldn't see any obvious way to tell them apart if I didn't know who was who. What was their viewpoint on this? Were they different personality types? Different physical types? One guy spoke up right away and started in on the 'Oh, we're all the same really ...' but that was no sooner out of his mouth than the other seventeen all exploded into conversation together. The noise was absolute chaos - the cameraman and soundman were running around this way and that trying to catch as much of it as possible, and people started to pair off and 'argue' the point with each other. There was certainly no consensus reached, as each time someone tried to make a point for one particular view, somebody else would come up with 'Then what about XXX-san sitting over there? What about _him_?' It was great fun, but pretty exhausting, especially as these guys are hard to understand at the _quietest_ of times. And with a bellyfull of sake ... Impossible! But it was certainly good fun, and thanks to this TV crew, I'm now considered much more of a real 'member' of the group than I have been up to now. So after I don't know how many solid days of filming spread around over the past few months (a dozen days? more?), we're now somewhere about half-way through, the director tells me ... She told me last night that we'll be flying up to Fukui to visit Iwano-san the papermaker in a couple of weeks. And during Nov and Dec they will be here many many times, as she wants to catch _every_ step in the production of #100 (which will start in about ten days, and which will finish - this was decided ten years ago - on December 20, 1998). I myself can't wait to see the finished program - unlike all the other programs up to now, which have been just 'stick a mike in his face, ask a couple of questions, shoot a bit of carving ...' _this_ one is really getting down into it! Sorry to ramble on about my own stuff so much ... Dave ------------------------------ From: Gary Luedtke Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1998 07:49:04 -0500 Subject: [Baren 2004] A most interesting day ... Hardly rambling, Dave. This is one of the reasons I'm tuned in to you. You have a unique insight into the heart of what's left of the traditional group of carvers and printers. Quite interesting, tell us more. How many are in this association? What are some of the others doing in the way of projects? Did they come up with any interesting defining differences between carvers and printers? How many of these folks do both, as yourself? O.K., what is "yakitori"? How do "these" people run their business? Are they sought out to do this kind of work, do they have to hustle work themselves? Are they "employees" of printing outfits? Are they an "honored" group within society because of their traditional roles and therefore work finds them? To what extent are they employing more modern techniques or materials such as the fellow you mentioned using cherry veneer? Do go on. Gary ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V5 #333 ***************************