Seaton, U.K. The Old School Press, 1999. Number 64 of 85 copies offered for sale. Twenty lettered copies were done for the collaborators. This was indeed a collaborative project with striking results. For something rather different, the Press collaborated with Canadian artist Naoko Matsubara in the making of an editioned piece that presents a collection of twenty haiku and tanka by James Kirkup, whose collection of poems Figures in a Setting we published in 1996. Each verse has been printed letterpress in large foundry Perpetua on a sheet of Japanese hand-made paper specially made by Masao Seki and accompanied by a striking woodcut by Naoko Matsubara. The images have been printed in one, two, or five colours by fine art printer Alan Flint in Canada under Matsubara's supervision. In issue 5 of "Parenthesis" Reiko Yamanouchi wrote about this work: "The result is brilliant and beautiful, deeply satisfying to the senses. Martyn Ould is to be congratulated for having published . . . such a sumptuous work, embodying the best of handwork and a perfect harmony of art and poetry, and also presenting a world in which European and Japanese cultures are subtly and happily merged."

The verses are complemented by a short essay on the writing of haiku and tanka by James Kirkup and on the concept of tokonoma itself. A tokonoma is an alcove in the home in which, for instance, a picture or scroll can be placed for meditation. To achieve the desired effect for this work, the loose sheets are housed in a box constructed to allow one verse at a time to be displayed, much as one might display a photograph or favourite picture. The twenty-five sheets (each about 33cm by 26cm) are held in a tray covered in black cloth with a perspex lid. The back of the tray allows it to stand so that the top sheet is displayed. A black slip case with a white title label protects the whole. This hybrid of book and picture means that the poetry and pictures need never be fully hidden as they would be in the pages of a shelved book, but can be changed with time or whim. Every copy is signed by the four collaborators.

From the Press website: "I think I must have talked to David Burnett about haiku and tanka and he introduced me to James Kirkup who was then living in Andorra. Kirkup had collaborated with Canadian wood-cut artist Naoko Matsubara on Insect Summer (he had previously translated poems from the Japanese by her sister Hisako). I sent James’s set of poems to her asking if she would like to choose twenty to illustrate. We struck a deal by which she would provide the wood-cuts and purchase the paper, her studio printer Alan Flint would do the printing of them under her supervision (which suited me very well!), and I would provide the letterpress. She commissioned a special making of hanga paper by Masao Seki which was torn by hand by Alan. I had already conceived the idea of a picture-frame presentation, wanting a book that did not always hide its contents. So the woodcuts could be kept one to a sheet. I printed the title sheet, James’s introductory words, and the colophon on tosa gampi. All the text was hand-set in Perpetua from the Stephenson Blake foundry and printed on the C&P. Printing onto Naoko’s images was somewhat nerve-wracking as it would have been sacrilege to wreck a sheet. But all was well. However, having printed the title sheets I left them on our dining-room table so I could admire them as I came downstairs, only to notice that I had printed one of the Os upside-down in the book’s title. I had to order further tosa gampi, send it to Canada for Alan Flint to hand-tear for me, and have it sent back so I could have another shot." An amazing and intricate work in fine condition. ARTB/071125. Fine. More