Tedorigawa Bookmakers

Ep. 331: A Shinkansen Vacation

Bookbinding

I went to Tokyo for four days. Before that, I finished a client’s hardcopy of The Briefcase Case. I presented it to the client in Tokyo. Other than making that particular book, I didn’t make any other as I was busy going to and from Tokyo by shinkansen.

Fiction

I’ve got three bits of fiction floating around my computer and brain. 

One: Zuihitsu. It has two plots that are coming to end soon and when they do finish, the book will be finished. Plot one – a revenge story. Plot two – a crumbling marriage story. The wife in the crumbling marriage was a teacher for one of the mean people in the revenge story. By the way, three characters in The Briefcase Case also appear in Zuihitsu.

Two: The Dry Mill Case. A mystery short story involving the same two main characters of The Briefcase Case in a similar plot: a woman is murdered, they discover who the murderer is, they are threatened by the woman’s family. Also, a similar length; about 50 pages.

Three: The Lonely Izakaya Down a Quiet Street. A 30-something woman meets her high school teacher and they get together over food, alcohol, and life. Not exactly the same as Strange Weather in Tokyo but the same plot but different outcome; written from the third-person rather than first-person.

The Talkies

You can see a video of The Briefcase Case being made at here. With narration about making books, the plot, about the difference between bunkobon and pocketbooks; and a bit about Kenrokuen, a famous garden in Japan that is in Kanazawa.

Ep. 330: The Battered Briefcase Case: A Mystery

Bookbinding

This week in bookbinding I made a quick collage-covered A6, 50-page book: The Battered Briefcase Case: A Marsh Mystery. It is a murder mystery. A man is accused of murder and hires a private investigator to find the real killer. The investigator discovers someone in Spain might have information about the real killer. In Spain the investigator meets his one true love.

This is a short story I wrote a few weeks back. While it has a plot: Who’s the killer? It is more character-driven than plot-driven, meaning, the people are important.

The book itself has a collage cover front and back. I took left over papers and used them on this book. I sewed the text block outside in the freezing cold in the outside of a coffee shop in Higashi-chaya, one of two famous geisha districts in Kanazawa. (See Talkies, below.)

I folded it and put the signature holes in it in a park near a river that flows through Kanazawa city. It was cold but I enjoyed listening to the elementary school boys two tables over. They were speaking a combination English and Japanese as they played an English computer game. 

I made the cover and cased the text block in in my studio where it is warmer and I have all the materials (leftover paper) and tools (scissors and glue) I need. 

An ebook version of The Battered Briefcase Case is available on Apple Books. Or you can contact me to make you a personalized edition.

Fiction

In fiction I’ve worked on two things instead of three. Zuihitsu is rolling along nicely because each day I can add whatever I want; that’s what following thre brush means. However, Zuihitsu has two strong plots that keep it going.

I wrote, edited, and finished The Battered Briefcase Case, of course. Unfortunately writing on those two means once again that Caraculiambro falls by the wayside; perhaps my renewed interest in mysteries will aid it along.

While The Battered Briefcase Case is finished and up at Apple Books, Zuihitsu is closing in on its finish line. I have started another short work tentatively called The Lonely Izakaya Down the Quiet Street but will talk about it later, when it’s more developed; including a new name.

Talkies

TDGB 76 The Briefcase Case is up for your viewing pleasure. It includes scenes from Kanazawa especially the two rivers (Saigawa and Asanogawa), and one of the two geisha districts (Higashi-chaya), and a coffee/tea place where I sewed the text block. Outside. In the winter. 

The book itself is on Apple Books.

Ep. 329: A Bespoke Collage & Tattoo?

Bookbinding

 

This is a120-page, A6-size blank notebook with a collage cover. The important part is the collage cover. As is most of my collage covers, this was an experiment in two ways: first, could I film the process? Second, did it look okay?

Top right is the front cover. Top left is the back cover. Off by itself is the book opened up so you can see both the front and back at the same time. Fascinating, eh?

To the first question: yes, I could film it. If you go to RhinoTattoo on YouTube, you can see and hear the video. It was necessarily a pretty static shot that didn’t show my hands as I worked. Primarily because I don’t have that kind of tripod many collage makers have. Fortunately, much of it is speeded up.

To the second question: It’s up to you. I like it. I think it accomplished what I set out to do. My goal: film a cover collage. What I would do differently is not put on the hazy gauze. The gauze made the book a bit fuzzy, of course, but it was also difficult to glue down, especially the edges. I would also had more pictures.

Fiction

Okay, sad to say this but I’ve been working on three, yes, Three, different pieces of fiction. As a result one has dropped by the wayside. Again. Caraculiambro is once again sidelined while I concentrate on the other two. The most further along is Zuihitsu. I believe this one is tying up loose ends in a satisfactory way. A few more months, I guess. 

The third one, just begun, is The Lonely Izakaya Down a Quiet Street. Here is the plot: a woman in her 30s runs into her retired high school Japanese teacher. Again and again. They talk.

So far, this is the plot of Hiromi Kawakami’s very popular Strange Weather in Tokyo (which has nothing to do with the strangeness of weather in Tokyo). In Kawakami's book, the two fall in love. In mine, they might not. I haven’t finished it, so I don’t know yet. 

My novel has a touch of magical realism, I think. The main character, Rin, can “see” herself in different places with different people. Also, one of Rin’s co-workers can float in the air but nobody comments on it. 

Flicks

Rhino Tattoo – so called because it has a kangaroo on the title page with a tattoo of a rhinoceros – is up on YouTube. It has kangaroo in Chinese. 
There are other videos that concentrate on bookbinding up as well. Please explore, subscribe, and enjoy.

Ep. 328: Where is Rhino River?

Bookbinding

You’re going to get a quick and easy Japanese lesson unless you already speak and read Japanese in which case this might be boring? Rhinoceros in Japanese is Sai with the accompanying kanji being 犀. The English river in Japanese transforms to Kawa with its kanji being three vertical lines; one is not straight: 川. Together they form one of the two major rivers that flow through Kanazawa: the Saigawa (犀川) – the K morphs into G in dual kanji. The other river is the Asanogawa which means shallow river, and it is. Shallow. The Saigawa could be called the Rhino River. 

My Rhino River is a 120-page, A6-size, collage covered blank notebook. I’m attempting to push my personal bookbinding skill envelope out a bit. This is why titles appear on spines and collages appear as book covers. With my Rhino River the collage has rhinoceroses front and back. A solid rhino on the front and an outline on the back. People populate the interior of the rhino on the back and tower over the rhino on the front cover. There is also a cow, harvesters ala van Gogh, a guitar museum, and a vague Shakespeare photo. 

Fiction

Work is going slow on the two works in progress I have stacked up on my To Write List: Zuihitsu and Caraculiambro. The former is moving slowly but steadily onward. It has two or three separate stories that may collide at one point. Shortly after the collision, Zuihitsu might come to a satisfying closure.

Caraculiambro is dragging. I need to re-read it to understand exactly what is going on but reading is wearing me down. Just imagine: the writer is confused about what he has written; someone’s brain needs refreshing.

Moving Pictures

TDGB 74 Rhino River is up for your visual pleasure as is TDGB 73 Making a Collage to see how I stumble through my collage making; you might learn something. Fingers crossed. 

Feel free to subscribe to both my YouTube channel and this podcast; it would be greatly appreciated.

 

Ep. 327: Why Do I Dislike This Collage?

Bookbinding

I made a collage from a political pamphlet but I didn’t like it because I don't like the politician and I made the collage in anger. When I finished the collage, I didn’t like it because I made in anger; I was thinking of throwing it away. However, I did more digging into the politician. I’m not angry any more, but I do have some questions. For example, he’s against renewable energy, specifically solar and wind power. He wants Japan to have an educational system that encourages logic and thinking; currently the system is based on rote memorization for the sole purpose of passing tests. The problem comes when he wants schools to teach 'proper' Japanese history. His 'proper' is extremely right-wing: Japan as victim, civilians massacred by the Japanese army as 'deserving it' etc.

Both the front and back covers have images from the pamphlet, including the main character and a stock photo of a smiling female.

Rather than throw the collage away, I used it to cover an A6-size, 100-page, blank notebook with French link stitching.

I added a coffee au lait sticker on the front for no particular reason other than to show, like coffee, politicians are for sale, too. On the back I applied the instructions on how to open a milk carton. I think the collage fit. It is a good cover.

Fiction

I’m working on Zuihitsu and Caraculiambro. Progress is slow. One problem with Caraculiambro is there are too many plots I have to clear up before the end of the book. I like the plots: brother-sister-brother conflict; murder; land fraud-infidelity conflict. They are all related but I’ve confused myself. I have to unconfuse myself before we can move on.

Zuihitsu, while slowly merging into two or three stories that logically should converge at some point, continues with non-literary, non-fiction artifacts. Included most recently is what I think was John Steinbeck’s writing routine which included just writing anything or re-reading a work in progress.

Hopefully, the two or three stories will merge so we the reader can get some closure and start re-reading it. As of today, it’s 80 pages but will continue as long as necessary.

Video

At TDGB 71 there’s a tutorial for the French link stitch for those who want to see how I do the French link stitch; not necessarily the best way or the best tutorial, but how I muddle my way through it.

Also, at TDGB 72: Winter Spy you can see this collage-covered book being made (sometimes in 4 times speed) and point out my mistakes. However, enjoy.

Ep. 326: Apple Kayak Summer. What?

Bookbinding

I made a 100-page, A6-size blank notebook that I christened Apple Kayak Summer. As in the last book I made, this one, too, uses the French link stitich.

Both the front and back covers are collages. The front collage has two people. One is the mayor of Kanazawa who is running for another term. He’s dressed in a somber, politically-attractive suit and a grin.

The other person is from an advertisement for a funeral home. She’s dressed in black, of course, but with a bright smile, cheerful eyes, and a finger pointing toward heaven. Or questioning how many bodies are involved. Hard to say.

The back cover has a pizza, a cartoon boy carrying a load of apples, and the kanji for mountain (pronounced yama): 山。The cartoon boy is from a political advertisement. It is supposed to be the candidate. It is also supposed to show how alive and healthy the candidate is. The kanji is there because people tend to climb mountains in the summer. (From the title of the book: Apple Kayak Summer). The pizza is there because I like pizza and it came in the mail.

Fiction

As in the last video, Caraculiambro is being edited and Zuihitsu is being added to. Increasingly, Zuihitsu is merging into two or three short stories/novellas. Nice.

Video

On Youtube you can see the making of Apple Kayak Summer in vivid color for your viewing pleasure. This is a picture of a couple of statues in Miyazaki, by the way, not in Kanazawa (which has different statues).

 

Also on YouTube is a tutorial on how I make the French link stitch; maybe not the proper way, but how I make it. You might be able to learn from it. If not, let me know.

 

Ep. 325: Is This Garbage? Or just Fantasy?

Bookbinding

I have experimented with collage for a few weeks now and decided to make a collage cover. Expect to see more collage covers in the future.
It was also time to practice making French link stitch binding so I combined the two in a blank, 100-page B6-sized notebook.  

The book boards are recycled files destined for the garbage pit. The covers are a recycle kite and left over bits from another book.The endpapers are recycle pieces that lived in my To Be Used Someday pile for the last decade or more.

Fiction

I've been working on two things. One has been in production for ten years. But not consistently. Caraculiambro. I’m re-reading it to catch up to speed on the plot and characters. Hopefully. I’ll be writing and/or editing it soon. Two, Zuihitsu continues to converge to a (happy?) ending. At least to an ending, although I suspect there might be violence.

Video

TDGB 69: French Link Stitch II. A recycled collage cover; the first of a few collage covers. With 100 blank pages and the French link stitch. The first books using French link stitches; more coming, I suspect. With even a tutorial coming soon. I hope.

Ep. 324: Growing Slurry: Is It Finished, Yet?

Bookbinding

Yes, I finished Growing Slurry: A Whale of a Love Story. The title is on the spine and there’s a whale on the cover (front, spine, and back). The book is 265 A6-size pages, 17 signatures, with endbands, and a bluish book cloth for a cover.

It took me a while to get the title printed on the spine and then to align the spine part of the book cover on the book boards. Properly. Fortunately, I managed. Practice, I’m told, leads to success.

It takes place over the course of about 12 hours but each character (Sliven, the male; Gina, the female) has flashbacks to the past where their past lives are shown, examined, and explained. 

Throughout the novel, both characters discuss Moby-Dick. In fact, they meet because Sliven is carrying a copy of Moby-Dick; when Gina sees it, she makes the first move, she ignores everything else about Sliven and they strike up a conversation, discussion, romance? – relationship. This relationship deepens with each flashback and what they discover about each other.

Fiction

I’ve started a journal/novel called The Zuihitsu of Mrs Collier. Zuihitsu is a Japanese word that literally means writing from the brush. It is a journal that can include anything the writer wishes to include. The original zuihitsu was The Pillow Book (Makura no Shoshi) by Sei Shonagon who wrote in about the year 1000. She wrote about Heian era court life, the food she ate, the people she met, and lists of things she thought important.

The Zuihitsu of Mrs Collier is similar. There is a bread recipe, observations and comments on recent events, and two fictional stories. When the two stories end, the book ends. 

Video

For your view pleasure there are two videos up about Growing Slurry. One is longer and about the construction of the book and the plot. TDGB 68. The other one is the first two sentences of Growing Slurry. TDGB 67. Enjoy.

Ep. 323: Is three times the charm?

Bookbinding

I’ve made three books in the last week or so. All the same topic. All the same size - A6 or pocketbook. All with some mistakes. All three books have the same four short stories:

• Morris & Maurice is about a janitor and his Siamese cat, if you please, who witness both the development of a park and a murder.

• Paul’s Paris Disneyland’s Farewell Party about three friends who get together in Paris to celebrate Paul’s retirement. They walk in the footsteps of Marcel Proust primarily because I discovered Paris Disneyland is very close to a small village called Guermantes. 

• Satan Rains is about a heavy metal band that has trouble getting gigs until a tragedy occurs. 

• Snow Country. I told you about this short story last time, but I’ll refresh my memory. Three work-from-home weavers Zoom each other before their work day begins and tell each other ghost stories to give them something to think about as they weave. Two experience a ghostly event in their ’real’ lives.

I put all four short stories into one book called Snow Country. I printed it out. In the first edition, I thought the type was too small and the leading too close. The first attempt has 117 pages. That’s the green volume.

The second printing had an interesting problem: different fonts for the different stories. I don’t know how that happened. Probably when I imported the different stories into the book design app I was using.  Second, I usually want a new chapter to begin on the right page; the recto/odd-numbered page. One story in the second printing started on the left page; the verso or even-numbered page. Again, though, I thought the leading was too close. My biggest mistake on this printing was not gluing down the mull onto the book board. I did, however, glue it to the text block. I have no idea why I failed to do that. This attempt has 131 pages. This is the pale blue volume on the left.

So, I tried again. I made sure the leading was good, the fonts consistent, and the type the proper size. I checked, and all was good. I printed it out.

I began gathering the parts, bits, and material to case it in. I checked one more time to make sure. This attempt’s mistake is: it has two page 13s. Why? I have no idea. This attempt has 172 pages and is the pale blue number on the right.

With the third printing, I didn’t want to waste the paper, so I continued making it. The printer decided the book-cloth cover, pale blue, needed a splash of ink on the back, so this printing has that. Unfortunately, I misaligned the cover. The name of the book on the spine is not centered correctly. Ah, how we wish we could live and learn.

Fiction

I started a semi-fictional something. In Japanese, it’s called a zuihitsu. I believe in English it would be called a miscellany or journal. Zuihitsu means to write where the wind blows you. No, it doesn’t; it means: follow the brush (as in a calligraphy brush, not shrubbery.)

Ken Kesey wrote two zuihitsu, I believe. The first, Ken Kesey’s Garage Sale, contained essays, fiction, a play, and other musings. His second, Demon Box, had fiction and non-fiction essays. 

The most famous, in Japan, zuihitsu is from the woman who invented the genre. Sei Shonagon wrote The Pillow Book (Makura no Soshi) in the late 900s and early 1000s. Yes, about a thousand years ago. Her book had essays, anecdotes, poems, her opinions, and descriptive passages of life in the Heian era court, and seemingly endless lists of things.

I started it, in any case. There is a translator’s introduction that claims the writings were originally written by an Arab historian called Cide Hamete Benengeli. 

So far, it has fiction, non-fiction, and a recipe (for bread).

I started a novel, too. I have a name for it: The Tale of Kenshi. It’s about a woman who doesn’t fit her physical body; she doesn’t think she’s as beautiful as she’s been constantly told. She puts up an act when she’s around people, but buries her real personality out of sight. She meets and talks with an old crow, a bird, not an old woman. Or maybe the crow is a reincarnated old woman? Hard to tell right now.

Video

I have posted two videos for your viewing pleasure.

The first is one of my attempts to make Snow Country. It shows the making of the cover, but not the casing in.

The second is my third attempt at casing in Snow Country, which is available here: Casing in Snow Country: Is the Third Time the Charm?

Ep. 322: Ghosts & Mistakes

Bookbinding

In the last two weeks, I made two books. The first one was a quick, blank notebook using bits and pieces. The second one was a case-bound novel with one major mistake. First, the blank notebook. The base for the cover is a file cut to size. On the cover, I pasted a variety of bookboards left over from other projects. These boards were also partly plastic & paper files or folders, and partly real bookboards. Then I added a piece of string just offset the squarish files.

The whole book was coptic-bound with 96 pages. I used US letter-sized paper (it’s wider and shorter than A4; 8.5 x 11 inches or 216 x 279 mm vs 210 x 297 mm or 8.29 x 11.69 inches). Why? Because, really, honestly, about 20 years ago, I bought five reams of US letter paper for a project that consumed only two reams. Why five reams? Because that’s the smallest amount the store would special order for me, and I thought I’d probably use it. Eventually. I still have three reams minus 24 pages.

The second book was my novel, Molly Bright. About 250 pages, case-bound, B6-size paper, and one major mistake. Because it is B6, I needed to print A3 to fit the entire book. I don’t have a printer that can handle A3 (it barely handles A4). I printed everything on B5 paper: the front cover (with the title on the lower third); the back cover (with the Tedorigawa Bookmakers logo on lower than the lower third); and the spine (with my name at the top, Molly Bright in the middle (sideways), and TDGB on the bottom). 

The front and back are purple with the words in black. The spine is off-white, close to off-yellow, with the words in black. I glued the covers on the bookboard first, then glued the spine over the book and the covers. It came out looking nice. I also added quick and dirty end bands (the purple cloth folded over a piece of twine.

Naturally, with great caution, I test-printed everything. Especially the spine. Once everything was looking good, I printed everything on the bookcloth. I glued on the covers. So far, so good. I glued on the spine piece. So far, so good. I turned it over to smooth everything down. And there it was: the major mistake.

The first letter of Molly Bright was 75% covered by the spine; only a vertical line of the M showed. Heartbreak. But I immediately tried to think of a solution. I practiced writing the M with a small magic marker, an ink pen, and a pencil. I practiced on the same fabric as the spine piece. But in the end, I let the mistake stand. And sent it off to a friend.

Fiction

Also, in the last two weeks or so, I wrote two short stories (of about 20 ~ 30 pages). While I should have been finished Caraculiambro and Growing Slurry.

The first one is called Snow Country. Three work-at-home females who weave cloth on hand looms and knit sweaters and caps during the day start their day with a Zoom call. During the call, they tell each other ghost stories with ambiguous endings so that they have something to think about during the day as they weave or knit. 

The second one is called Oh, That’s Good, No, That’s Bad. A man has a bully. (that’s bad) He makes a decision (that’s good). He decides to kill the bully (that’s bad). He needs to buy an unregistered, unmarked gun. He goes to a sleazy bar. (bad) He makes a friend (good). He gets beaten up. (bad) He ends up in the hospital. He meets two nice doctors who are married to each other (good). He falls in love (bad). The woman agrees to date him (good). On a date, they run into his bully at a nice restaurant (good). The bully is nice to the woman, whom he knows from a charity he works with (good) and the man (also good).  The man says he no longer wants to kill the bully (good). The woman admits her husband is a bully, and she wants to kill him (bad). 

The title and the premise come from a 1967 song by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs titled Oh, That’s Good, No, That’s Bad. Sam, aka Domingo Samudio, is still with us at 88 years old. The songs vacillates between good and bad happenings in a man’s life (hit by a car, gets money, spends money on hospital, limps, gets a job in TV, horse falls on him, goes to hospital, meets a nurse, nurse’s husband is the guy’s doctor, operates on the wrong leg).

I sort of took that premise. Plus, the characters in my short story are named after the Pharaohs and the Shamettes (Sam’s back-up singers). The bully wears wool. Why? Because Sam the Sham and The Pharaohs’ biggest and first hit was Wooly Bully released in 1964, got to number 2 on the Billboard charts (kept off number 1 by the Dixie Cups and their Chapel of Love) and stayed on the chart for 18 weeks (longer than any song that didn’t get to number 1 until 2000). 1964 was the year the Beatles, remember them? had six number one hits.

Video

No video again this time, sorry. But you can look at my back catalogue, i.e. videos I’ve put up before. Kind of catch up, if you want.