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To: devotee of small-sized desktop letterpress printing machine
From: Robundo Publishing Inc. and Adana Press Club


Our website on Adana-21J, a small-sized desktop letterpress machine we produce and sell, have received attention and some letters from people at home and abroad, which we feel very grateful.

Among them are requests from abroad to obtain the Adana-21J, but unfortunately Adana-21J is at present supplied for our domestic market only.

Robundo Publishing Inc., a publisher of books on typography, founded in 1964, set up Adana Press Club in 2006 to intend for healthy revival of letterpress system that have so far faced with a crisis of its survival. We opened our Adana-focused website and have tried to give full information on the machine as much as possible, providing you detailed information of our foundation, the design, the production and sales performances with regard to Adana-21J. There is, however, few staff well able to communicate in English in Adana Press Club, and our information is given in Japanese only. Then on our foreign website pages there seems to be some incorrect and misleading information about our activities

Robundo Publishing Inc. and Adana Press Club, therefore, publicise here new pages in English version on our website and hope you will clear up misunderstanding by reading our message.

Adana Press Club has had served not only for the development and sales of Adana-21J, small-sized desk-top letterpress printing machine, but also for production and sales of composing sticks, jacks, metal base, furniture, galleys, letter boards, leads, reglets, and tweezers, which had been interrupted in production in Japan. The club has been in charge of developing and selling of other materials such as typographic ink and types as well, though small in quantity.

We then hope you’ll understand that we thought it was an urgent matter to manufacture and supply small-sized printing machines to help hobby-printers who are expected to be leading figures in reviving this letterpress printing that has been driven into a corner of a critical phase.

It would be very appreciated if you understand our intention, and enjoy this small-sized machine Adana-21J, which may possibly be the first Japan-made small-sized printing machine in twenty-first century.

10 April 2008

Jiro Katashio, Managing director, Robundo Publishing Inc.

Kaori Oishi, Representative, Adana Press Club

Present Situation of Letterpress Printing in Japan and
Actual Processes of Founding Adana Press Club


It is said that in 1960s the dominating process of printing in Japan was letterpress method and there were almost fifty-thousands to seventy-thousands printing houses in total either in smaller and larger sizes.

When in 1970s to 80s, letterpress printing faced severe competition with photo-typesetting and offset lithographic process, and at last in 2005 the decline in supply and demand in printing houses became no doubt real.

As a Japanese manual platen press, a hand-operated foot press style called TEKIN were sold by a few companies. The number of the machine installed in printing houses was estimated more than ten thousands. The weight of TEKIN machine is about fifty to ninety kilograms, and it was used to print visiting cards and other various kinds of card, and was still in use today particularly by small-scale jobbing printers. Among hobby printers there are some enthusiastic antique gadget machine users.

Kobundo (not Robundo) Inc. became an agent of import and sales of Adana 5x3 and Adana 8x5, in the middle of 1960s, when letterpress process at work was at the peak of operation, and approximately eight hundreds machines or, according to other source of information, two thousands machines were imported for the Japanese hobby-printers. Kobundo, however, decided from the middle of 1970s to cease the import services, and gave up supplying parts of the machine and metal types and providing maintenance services.

Ms. Oishi of Adana Press Club, once worked for a facility in the Printing Museum as a curator, spent her time mainly instructing operation of small-sized letterpress printing machines for the visitors to the Museum for about eight years including her training term. There were various letterpress machines installed and operated by her, but her mainly controlled machine was Adana 8x5 that was the last version of product by Caslon Limited.

Among the visitors to the Museum there were some users of the old English-made Adana machine imported by Kobundo, but they had complaints about unavailability of ink-roller, gripper fingers and other parts of the machine and of no good maintenance services as well.

There are many visitors who, through the experiences with practicing printing machines in the Museum, expressed their requests to obtain Adana. One of them went to England to purchase it, and finding it not possible, went back to Japan disappointedly.

We could manage to reply to him only by saying ‘Why don’t you find it on website and get it from auction abroad, if it is acceptable to obtain a second-hand machine’. But the comments against our advices were; ‘I am not familiar with English and foreign auction as well…’; ‘I got a second-hand machine at last, but it wouldn’t work well. I can’t find any houses at home for repair’ as such. When there came in the Museum such voices of requesting advices, Ms. Oishi felt sorry to these people for not fully helping them at will.

On Establishing Robundo Adana Press Club and Manufacturing Adana-21J


Having made up her mind to leave the Museum in Spring 2006, Ms. Oishi visited Robundo where she had known for long. Then there held a meeting attending Ms. Oishi herself, Mr. Katashio of Robundo, and Mr. S. R. of Western Mind Corporation (W. M. C. thereafter) who lives in Japan and had known Ms. Oishi since preparation period of setting up the Museum and helped the Museum in 1999 purchase Adana 8x5, the last product of Caslon Limited.

In the meeting we confirmed the fact that the supply and demand in domestic type-foundries and letterpress printing presses has decreased and faced serious crisis in repairing, exchanging parts, supplying other related materials of TEKIN and ADANA for amateur printers and hobby printers. In addition, in the meeting was viewed that the letterpress printers, who need to supply metal types a few times of number of the characters (Chinese characters, hiragana: the Japanese cursive hand form, and katakana: the Japanese phonetic syllable) than that of the Latin alphabet, have in particular reached aging, and that letterpress printing will soon face serious crisis of disappearing unless urgent care was taken to cope with this situation.

When Robundo suggested an idea that a new section should be founded in the office of Robundo and called ‘Adana Press Club’, in order to revive the letterpress, W. M. C. agreed to it.

Robundo then asked W. M. C. to find the way of starting manufacturing Adana again by Caslon Ltd. and of exporting it to Japanese market.

The following minutes of the meeting with W.M.C. is to confirm the facts, including extracts from formal documents prepared by Ushiki International Patent Office and the (National) Patent Office. You can read this minute anytime if you visit us as filed by Robundo.

19 April 2006

At the meeting in Adana Press Club joined with W. M. C.

  1. W. M. C.  We are the Far East general agent of Caslon Ltd.

  2. W. M. C.  Caslon Ltd. is not capable of manufacturing Adana, since they have no design specifications and moulds of Adana, and is not going to manufacture, but they are still supplying available parts of it by means of website.

  3. W. M. C.  Ready to arrange to export the machines to Caslon Ltd. and other foreign shops supplying printing materials, if Robundo decides to manufacture the small-sized letterpress machines and the price is reasonable and acceptable.

  4. W. M. C.  It will cost less expensive to design in Japan and manufacture outside Japan. We can find the mould makers and introduce them to Robundo, if required.

  5. Robundo  Acknowledged. Show us the documents of evidence that you are the Far East general agent of Caslon Ltd.

  6. W. M. C.  Acknowledged.

25 April 2006

At Ushiki International Patent Office

  1. Robundo  Had previously sent the minutes of meeting joined with W. M. C. to Ushiki P. O. and Katashio and Oishi visited Mr. Ushiki, the head of Ushiki P. O.

  2. Ushiki  Completed the research on the matter of TEKIN and ADANA as requested by Robundo. After an investigation of related patent, industrial design right, and registered trademarks, we’ve found that there exists no validity of rights that concern this matter. This means it has no problematic legal matters for Robundo to manufacture the similar printing machines.

  3. Robundo  The name called ADANA is used in Japan as a symbolic term to this small-sized letter-press machine among the hobby printers. There are some people who wrongly call ADANA to TEKIN machine that are made even by other factories. Would like to use the name ‘ADANA’ in a general term in honor of Mr. Donald Aspinall, who designed this great machine that represents a generic name of small-sized letterpress machine for the hobby printers. Wondering if there will be any trouble?

  4. Ushiki  Have confirmed there are no registered trademarks and no rights being applied, which is the same or similar one. Also the term of the patent of almost all letterpress machines as an industrial product including ADANA had long been ineffective. Recommend you to apply for the patent of trademarks to the Patent Office and invite the comments from them, when you want to make it sure. (question the view to them)

  5. Robundo  Good. Will apply for the patent of ‘ADANA’ or ‘Adana’ to the Patent Office.

27 April 2006

At Ushiki International Patent Office

  • Ushiki  Will apply an registered trademark of ‘ADANA’ or ‘Adana’ as ‘Printing related machines (and materials)’ to the Patent Office.

19 May 2006

At the meeting joined with W. M. C.

  1. W. M. C.  Re-confirmed to Caslon Ltd that they have no design specifications, the moulds of Adana, and have no intention to manufacture. Recommend you to purchase and sell the second-hand printing machines being currently in use in the market outside Japan.

  2. Robundo  The related skills and technology will definitely be dying, and supplying parts of it will be beyond our control, if we rely on importing the second-hand.

  3. W. M. C.  Promise to help your business on ADANA and give advices in getting contact to mould-makers and foreign type-foundries.

31 May 2006

At the meeting joined with W. M. C.

  1. W. M. C.  Agreed as an official agent of Caslon Ltd that Robundo can obtain the rights of trademark and manufacturing and selling of small-sized letterpress machine under the trade name of ADANA in Japan. Have a plan to visit U.K. and drop in the Caslon Ltd.

  2. Robundo  Good. Await the evidence of your relation with Caslon Ltd. and your report.

15 June 2006

At the meeting joined with W. M. C. after their returning from U.K.

  1. W. M. C. : Agree to your project, but are worried over the selling, due to the high production cost in Japan. In Caslon Ltd. many parts are still available in their stock. Recommend you to sell the second-hand that is profitable making.

  2. Robundo  In selling the second-hand, there will be no way of sharing responsibility. Had made decision to develop and sell the newly manufactured machines based on new specifications and moulds.

  3. W. M. C.  Acknowledged.

  4. Memo by Robundo There were no other reports from W. M. C. on this day on their visiting Caslon Ltd. except the record given above, and no evidence were shown to us on their relation with Caslon Ltd. Therefore asked another legal expert (except for Ushiki) on this matter and re-confirmed that this small-sized machine ADANA has no legal binding force for all of this matter.

23 June 2006

Correspondences through telephone and facsimile.

  1. W. M. C.  Have received the evidence from Caslon Ltd. telling W. M. C. is his agency, so will send it right now.

  2. W. M. C.  Please confirm Adana section on website of Caslon Ltd. that W. M. C. is the agent in Japan. Though facsimile surely says that W. M. C. is the agent in Japan, but Robundo wonders why W. M. C. is not the agent of Far East. Robundo judged there is a lack of credibility as the evidence, because some word or lines in a facsimile received are found partially painted in black. Robundo asked W. M. C. to submit the clear evidence again, and W. M. C. agreed. Robundo tried to check Caslon’s website pages, but found no such information as W. M. C. suggested. (Robundo confirmed in October 2007 on Caslon’s website that there are some description about W. M. C.)

21 July 2006

At Koike Manufacturing Co. Ltd.

  1. Robundo  Placed an order to make a design specifications and trial model of small-sized desktop letter-press printing machines to Koike, who is a famous manufacturer of type-founding machines. Also provided Koike with TEKIN, ADANA 8x5, Kesley 8x5 and other various hand operating platen presses made at home and abroad as a sample. Discussed a few times with the technical experts of Koike that the newly designed version should be provided for and welcomed by hobby printers in younger generations. Asked Koike the weight of the new machine should be less than 20 kg, as it is considered many female users will enjoy.

  2. Koike  Submitted an idea that the basic measurements should go metric, instead of yard-pound employed in sample models, it is intended to reduce the cost of obtaining parts and to stabilize our supply of the parts. Accepted this idea. Therefore, most of the similarity between an actual model, trial one as well, and the sample, have gone.

9 October 2006

At Adana Press Club.

  1. Koike  Completed trial machine No.1 called ‘Adana-21J’ made not on the moulds, and delivered it to Robundo.

  2. W. M. C.  Visited Robundo with Mr. J. M., who had come to Japan, and saw the newly-made trial machine. The first formal operator of Adana-21J happened to be appointed to Mr. J. M. The pictures of his performance are seen on Robundo’s website.

27 – 29 October 2006

At Adana Press Club.

  1. Robundo  Held preview demonstration of Adana-21J at Robundo office. Over one-hundred people visited during these few days.

  2. Robundo  Had meeting with Koike after the preview finished, and discussed on the comments and voices collected from the visitors.

  3. Robundo  Ordered Koike production of the second trial machine and its model.

29 November 2006

At Ushiki International Patent Office.

  1. Ushiki  Received a report from Ushiki International Patent Office on a view from the (National) Patent Office. The decision made by the Office was as follows: The name is not allowed to register as a trademark on the grounds that ‘Adana’ is recognized to express the name of the fourth biggest city in Turkey, the capital in Adana Prefecture, located deep in Kirikia Plain in southern Turkey. It therefore indicates only the name of production center, when used as a particularly specified product.

  2. Ushiki  Sent the report to Adana Press Club that no one can get trademark of ‘Adana’ and therefore it is possible to use it.

  3. Robundo  Sent in application to the Patent Office claiming an objection that the usage of the name is limited to ‘printing machine and its related materials’. It was dismissed from the Office a few weeks later.

January 2007

At Adana Press Club.

  1. Robundo  Placed an order to Koike to manufacture the Adana-21J, which is actually for sale.

April 2007

At Adana Press Club.

  1. Robundo  As a formal trade name, ‘Adana-21J’, previously called the same, was adapted.

  2. Robundo  Completed the production of Adana-21J and started selling.

At the end of September 2007

At Adana Press Club.

  1. Caslon Ltd.  At the opening of IGAS, which stands for International Graphic Arts Show held on from 21 to 27 September 2007, Adana Press Club set up a display shop for Adana-21J at the corner of Koike’s booth. Messrs. W. R. C. and D. B. happened to visit Adana shop.

  2. Robundo  Messrs. W. R. C. and D. B. were surprised to here from Robundo that they had not received any information about the processes of manufacturing Adana-21J. Showed them the actual machine, telling that Adana-21J is not a copy of the original, but it is a machine created basing on new specifications and on metric size and by inspected TEKIN, ADANA 8x5, and other small-sized platin machines. They understood our explanation.

  3. Robundo  A typography-centered publisher, Robundo, expressed his high expectation for Caslon Ltd, the world well-known brand. Told them that some users of the old version of ADANA have complaints about not being supplied the materials at all and have some troubles. Both gentlemen expressed their surprise. Told them that Robundo is willing to have mutual business cooperation gentlemanly with Caslon Ltd.

  4. W. M. C.  After close of IGAS, Robundo required W. M. C. to tell the reason why W. M. C. has had no contact with Caslon Ltd. so far. No responses from the manager of W. M. C. since then due to his being busy on his business.

Robundo Publishing Inc. Tokyo JAPAN