Toppan Group Company
We’ve worked with this plant since Hobonichi’s first published book in 2004. Currently, the plant handles all of the bookbinding of the Hobonichi 5-Year Techo.
Thank you everyone!
We visited a plant located in Numazu City, Shizuoka, which handles the bookbinding for the Hobonichi 5-Year Techo.
From the left: plant general manager Ota, plant manager Seito, and director of manufacturing Mochizuki. Ota’s actually a veteran user of the Hobonichi Techo, and has been using one for the last 14 years.
Ota: I’ve been using a Henry Cuir cover for years now. The leather is amazing.
Seito shared some information with us about the plant.
Seito: The bookbinding machines we have here are some of the most advanced in Japan. They’ve got all kinds of mechanisms that inspect and measure the products to minimize all possible mistakes, and catch them when they’re made.
We presented the crew with our thank-you gift of cookies before they showed us around the plant.
Itoi looks over the plant from the outlook bridge while listening to commentary from the crew. The 5-Year Techo undergoes book-pressing 6 times to ensure it can withstand years of opening and closing.
The crew shared a binder with us during the tour.
The binder contained samples of the bookmarks that are bound into books and dictionaries. One of these is also included in the 5-Year Techo.
Itoi: Wow, so there’s actually a company that specializes in these bookmarks.
Ota: Yes, we’ve worked with them for decades, now.
This cheesecloth is used to reinforce the spine. It’s essential in books like the 5-Year Techo that will be opened and closed many times over the years.
Itoi: Is this also made by a different company?
Ota: Yes, there’s a company that specializes in bookbinding cloth.
The crew was also kind enough to offer us a tour of some processes that aren’t used in the 5-Year Techo. This room is for mixing spot colors (colors that cannot be made with the 4 basic colors). It takes a specialist to mix ink in a way that produces each client’s desired color.
When the tour ended, Itoi expressed how humbled he was at seeing the work behind the scenes.
Itoi: The Hobonichi Techo is a product of the cooperation between all the people working on it. I started this journey as a means to express my appreciation directly to everyone. During the tour today, I could see how many layers of trust exist between all the companies, like the manufacturer of the machines and the manufacturer of the bookmarks. The final product is the embodiment of trust between companies coming together.
Next Itoi brought up the subject of one of the machines they showed us earlier, which pastes together cardboard.
Itoi: I really liked that machine with the rugged-looking copper wires. When I looked at it it felt like there was a person in there working. It was fun.
This is the machine that binds books by pasting together cardboard. It’s used to bind things like children’s books. The copper wires Itoi referred to were the yellow wires leading up diagonally. They have an important role, flipping over the paper that was folded in half.
Seito: You’re right, that wire is being adjusted manually by someone to fit the size of the item we’re bookbinding.
At the end of our visit, Mochizuki told us, “I know that we’re the ones producing it, but I still have to say that I think the 5-Year Techo is a gorgeous book.”
The book’s sturdy spine is what makes it easy to open and strong enough to last through the thousands of times it will be.
Mochizuki: You see these lines along the spine? These are the threads of the stitch-binding. These lines offer proof of how firmly bound the spine is. So as the manufacturers, when we see these lines, we find them beautiful. They reassure us that the structure is sound.
Itoi: We’re so thankful for that. We’ll make sure to communicate it to our users.
Thank you everyone!
We visited a plant located in Numazu City, Shizuoka, which handles the bookbinding for the Hobonichi 5-Year Techo.
From the left: plant general manager Ota, plant manager Seito, and director of manufacturing Mochizuki. Ota’s actually a veteran user of the Hobonichi Techo, and has been using one for the last 14 years.
Ota: I’ve been using a Henry Cuir cover for years now. The leather is amazing.
Seito shared some information with us about the plant.
Seito: The bookbinding machines we have here are some of the most advanced in Japan. They’ve got all kinds of mechanisms that inspect and measure the products to minimize all possible mistakes, and catch them when they’re made.
We presented the crew with our thank-you gift of cookies before they showed us around the plant.
Itoi looks over the plant from the outlook bridge while listening to commentary from the crew. The 5-Year Techo undergoes book-pressing 6 times to ensure it can withstand years of opening and closing.
The crew shared a binder with us during the tour.
The binder contained samples of the bookmarks that are bound into books and dictionaries. One of these is also included in the 5-Year Techo.
Itoi: Wow, so there’s actually a company that specializes in these bookmarks.
Ota: Yes, we’ve worked with them for decades, now.
This cheesecloth is used to reinforce the spine. It’s essential in books like the 5-Year Techo that will be opened and closed many times over the years.
Itoi: Is this also made by a different company?
Ota: Yes, there’s a company that specializes in bookbinding cloth.
The crew was also kind enough to offer us a tour of some processes that aren’t used in the 5-Year Techo. This room is for mixing spot colors (colors that cannot be made with the 4 basic colors). It takes a specialist to mix ink in a way that produces each client’s desired color.
When the tour ended, Itoi expressed how humbled he was at seeing the work behind the scenes.
Itoi: The Hobonichi Techo is a product of the cooperation between all the people working on it. I started this journey as a means to express my appreciation directly to everyone. During the tour today, I could see how many layers of trust exist between all the companies, like the manufacturer of the machines and the manufacturer of the bookmarks. The final product is the embodiment of trust between companies coming together.
Next Itoi brought up the subject of one of the machines they showed us earlier, which pastes together cardboard.
Itoi: I really liked that machine with the rugged-looking copper wires. When I looked at it it felt like there was a person in there working. It was fun.
This is the machine that binds books by pasting together cardboard. It’s used to bind things like children’s books. The copper wires Itoi referred to were the yellow wires leading up diagonally. They have an important role, flipping over the paper that was folded in half.
Seito: You’re right, that wire is being adjusted manually by someone to fit the size of the item we’re bookbinding.
At the end of our visit, Mochizuki told us, “I know that we’re the ones producing it, but I still have to say that I think the 5-Year Techo is a gorgeous book.”
The book’s sturdy spine is what makes it easy to open and strong enough to last through the thousands of times it will be.
Mochizuki: You see these lines along the spine? These are the threads of the stitch-binding. These lines offer proof of how firmly bound the spine is. So as the manufacturers, when we see these lines, we find them beautiful. They reassure us that the structure is sound.
Itoi: We’re so thankful for that. We’ll make sure to communicate it to our users.
Thank you everyone!
The final product is the embodiment of trust between companies coming together.
Toppan Group Company
Toppan has many printing assembly plants across Japan that print and bind a variety of printed material, including comics, trade paperbacks, mass-market paperbacks, textbooks, and more. In addition to their standard printing services, they’ve recently begun offering services to accommodate low print runs.