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This illustration is from the Thousand-Year Blood War Arc, the final chapter of BLEACH. The Soul Society is in danger of being destroyed by an invasion from the Wandenreich.
Ichigo Kurosaki descends in front of Yhwach with the words of Byakuya Kuchiki engraved on his heart: "Protect the Soul Society." This illustration is the final two-page spread from Chapter 512 of BLEACH, titled "THE STAND ABLAZE."
"Ablaze" is an English word meaning to burn. Ichigo's torn and flapping Shihakusho looks like a flame about to burst into a roaring fire.
The original illustration was drawn vertically on A3 (297 x 420 mm) paper, but in the Comics volume, it was arranged horizontally across a two-page spread. What is unique about this image is that the illustration has been positioned with a diagonal slant, rather than completely horizontal, with the black background visible in both the upper right and lower left.
Black backgrounds are usually employed for flashback scenes. The unstable composition of the illustration makes it appear as if it were a scene where someone is falling unconscious. But here Yhwach has not received a single blow from anyone. He is unscathed.
The following chapter (Chapter 513: THE DARK MOON STROKE) begins with a scene of Byakuya Kuchiki standing in the rain. Words seen on Ichigo's back read: "I'll leave it to you, Ichigo Kurosaki."
Turn the page again.
Byakuya's Zanpakuto, Senbonzakura has been crushed. The black background line with the Zanpakuto handle in the air and the title of the story spelled out in white is slanted.
Thus, we realize that the figure of Ichigo may not be what Yhwach viewed, rather it may be what Byakuya Kuchiki (or Senbonzakura?) saw.
This was one of the scenes from BLEACH chosen by Tite Kubo to produce as part of the letterpress works. To make it into a manga artwork, the illustration plate was remade based on the A3 original. This process made it possible to print Ichigo's left leg and the sky, which had been truncated in the original Comics volume.
In addition, backgrounds difficult to produce using a letterpress, such as those created with screentone, were separated and offset printed before the work was printed on a letterpress flatbed. This process allows for the reproduction of powerful images and delicate details at the same time.
Signature on prints (handwritten)
Due to the nature of the cotton paper, small black spots may be seen in the work. In addition, subtle color irregularities and small ink droplets may be present as a result of the letterpress printing process. Please be aware of this when applying.
Kubo debuted in 1996 with Ultra Unholy Hearted Machine (published in Weekly Shonen Jump Summer Special). He published BLEACH in Weekly Shonen Jump between 2001 and 2016,. In 2018, he released a new work, Burn the Witch. Recently, in 2021, a new episode titled "BLEACH: New Breaths from Hell" was released.
Kubo won the 50th Shogakukan Manga Award for BLEACH in 2005. And in 2008, he received the Comic-Con International Inkpot Award.
BLEACH is essentially a battle action story that follows the life of the protagonist, Ichigo Kurosaki, who has suddenly gained Shinigami powers. The story linedepicts the growth of Ichigo and his friends as they battle evil spirits called Hollows and other Shinigami adversaries. The manga was made into an animated television series in 2004. The manga series concluded in 2016. The total worldwide circulation of the 74 BLEACH mangavolumes (tankobon) exceeded 130 million copies as of December 2022. A new episode, "BLEACH: New Breaths from Hell," was published in the 36th and 37th issues of Weekly Shonen Jump in 2021 (it went on sale August 10). In December 2021, an exhibition of the original artwork was held to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the initial publication of BLEACH.In 2022, The anime "BLEACH :Thousand-Year Blood War" was released.
活版平台印刷
Since its inception, the black and white storytelling medium known as manga has been produced by the letterpress, the most primitive method of printing. Even today, Shonen Jump and other manga magazines are created using the letterpress rotary printing method commonly known as katsurin.
Letterpress printing is an old-style printing method in which ink adhered to a printing resin plate is transferred by directly pressing the plate onto the paper. The way manga is drawn has evolved to accommodate this method of printing.
One good example is the text. The standard typeface used in manga is called "Anti-Gothi." It is a combination of a sans-serif typeface (often called "Gothic" in Japan) for kanji characters and a serif typeface (Ming) for hiragana and katakana. It is said that this typeface was chosen in the early days of manga production, when they were printed by letterpress, so as not to compromise readability (see Idea, Issue 336, 2009, Seibundo-Shinkosha.) Screen tones also developed with the use of design materials to imitate the gray and other form patterns using letterpresses, which are not capable of printing in gray.
While rotary letterpress printing can only be used with huge rolls of recycled paper for mass production, a flatbed letterpress is capable of printing on a variety of types of paper. Flatbed letterpress machines were employed all over Japan, including in Tokyo, but they have been replaced by offset printing presses, there are only a few large flatbed letterpress machines to be found.
Is it possible to take manga, which has always been a medium optimized for letterpress, and turn it into artworks using the highest possible quality of letterpress? This was the question we wanted to answer.
Using a letterpress machine, the artwork is created using extremely strong pressure on a paper. This creates a unique surface with a physical impact that is impossible to achieve using offset, lithographic, or silkscreen printing. When you touch it, you can see that the printed surface is concave.
The aim of us is to pass on not only compelling manga artwork, but also the printing technology used by rare printing presses to future generations.
Tsutatomo Printing Co., Ltd. (Nagano) Tokyo Letterpress (Kagurazaka) Nikkodo (Asakusa)