Eiichiro Oda "ONE PIECE" Color Works Scheduled for Sale

Discussing the Letterpress Vol.3

The artworks being offered by Shueisha Manga-Art Heritage (SMAH) are culmination of skilled artisan techniques cultivated over many years. The Press series uses a large flatbed letterpress to print monochrome manga images and dialogue on 100% cotton Gmund paper to similar size. A skilled technician in Nagano, Japan named Yoshinori Kuroyanagi working for the Tsutatomo Printing CO.,LTD, printed these works by himself and won the 2021 Gmund Award for the art category, receiving worldwide acclaim. Masao Takaoka is the second-generation president of the Kazui Press, which has been promoting the art of European typography in Japan from before World War II. SMAH has entrusted him to create letterpress prints of the NFT blockchain sales certificates provided with each of the works that we sell. Masashi Okamoto, SMAH’s producer from Shueisha’s Digital Division, visited Tsutatomo Printing in Nagano with Mr. Takaoka. We were fortunate to record the discussion between Mr. Kuroyanagi, Mr. Takaoka and Mr. Okamoto after observing the printing of the artwork from Tite Kubo's BLEACH, a new addition to the Press series. In this three-part interview, we discuss the history of printing from the 1960s to the present, as well as the challenges that arose with this special project even with Kuroyanagi's 60 years of printing experience. (Recorded May 27, 2022 at Tsutatomo Printing Company/ 3 sessions)

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