Continuing to focus on the beauty of unevenness and preserving typography culture for the future [Tsukiji Type]
Manufacturing Creating things Craftsman's Landscape
This issue's site [Occupation] Type casting craftsman [Craftsman name] Tsukiji typesetting Omatsu Hatsuyuki [Location] Minami Ward, Yokohama
Carefully, slowly, and with thought. A section introducing manufacturing sites that make use of handcrafted techniques. This time, we will look at letterpress printing, which once supported Japan's printing culture. Introduces the world of digitalization. He went on to work at Tsukiji Typeface, which has gained support from many customers.
A worn wooden shelf called the "Type Room." More than 250,000 metal characters, including kanji, hiragana, and the alphabet, are lined up there. This is Tsukiji Type, which was founded in 1919 (Taisho 18). At the back of the store, a loud mechanical sound is reverberating from a type casting machine. The raw metal (ingot) melted in a kettle at 350-400 degrees flows into a concave mother mold that has been installed in the casting machine beforehand, and emerges as a convex type while being cooled with tap water. Omatsu-san, who has been working as a casting craftsman here since he was 19 years old, is now 73 years old. He occasionally pulls down his glasses and peers through a magnifying glass to inspect the freshly made type. This careful and high-quality work, which has been going on for more than 50 years, still conveys the charm of type to us today.
A rod is placed in a pot containing molten metal and the material's specific gravity and other "feel" are checked.
As an aside, I thought the appeal of letterpress printing was the deep unevenness (even the back side is uneven) that appears as if it is engraved into the paper, but he said, "It has been said since ancient times that artisans who press too hard are no good in letterpress printing. The key to skill is to express beautiful unevenness on the front while preventing it from showing through to the back and changing the appearance of the paper on the back." I was able to hear many profound stories.
When I receive a letterpress business card for work, I can't help but pick it up and stare at it. Today, I realized the reason why. It's just a business card, but it's still a small square piece of paper that fits in the palm of your hand, and it is engraved with the skills and thoughts of artisans that have been passed down for generations. Why not try letterpress printing not only for business cards, but also for New Year's cards from now on? A New Year's card that will make people who pick it up fall in love with the beauty of the letters and instinctively want to touch them with their fingers...
Share
Related articles
A very popular project! A conversation between people from Twitter!
Giving shape to the best work I can do [Rengeso Motomachi Kobo]
Hudson Shoe Store: Focusing on shoes and repairing them as if they were being made
Continuing to focus on the beauty of unevenness and preserving typography culture for the future [Tsukiji Type]