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Bossa, a simple yet stylish game for two: Episode 16
Written by Hiroshi Maeda, Bossa team leader
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Bossa THE ART series and CLASSIC series are handcrafted one by one by Japanese artisans. Today, I would like to share with you how they are handcrafted and how delicate, careful, and time-consuming the process is to achieve high quality.
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First, let me introduce an important key person. He is Mr. Masayuki Tadokoro, whom we trust and respect. Mr. Tadokoro is a highly skilled and artistic paper craft artisan. He and his team of artisans handcraft the game components of Bossa CLASSIC edition one by one. And only Mr. Tadokoro can make the components of THE ART edition, which require extremely high skill and delicate work, and artistic sensibility.
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CLASSIC series tiles (left: CLASSIC, right: CLASSIC-neo) by Shichisei Sangyo, Mr. Tadokoro’s artisan team
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Only Mr. Tadokoro can handcraft Bossa THE ART edition tiles. (“mizu”)
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THE ART edition tile has a beautiful 9-layer cross-section (“hana”)
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2023 new edition, THE ART “yuki” dot tile: The semi-reflective, slightly silverish light blue surface shows various expressions depending on the angle.
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Why can he make such amazing paper tiles?
The simple, clear answer is that he has a great deal of experience in artistic work, which requires a very high level of skill and delicate handwork. Part of this was developed in collaboration with me (Hiroshi Maeda, Bossa team leader), and I am very proud of that. As a graphic designer myself, I have had many opportunities to work with Mr. Tadokoro over the past 25 years. Some of our work has won design awards. And sometimes when I served as a design award judge, I would design a trophy with crazy specifications to present to the winners, which he would then turn into a real thing. Because of this long-standing relationship of trust between him and me, I had no hesitation in asking him to craft Bossa’s CLASSIC and THE ART editions.
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A design award trophy made of thousands of layers of colored paper. Design: Hiroshi Maeda, Paper craft: Masayuki Tadokoro
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Hiroshi Maeda, Bossa team leader (left) and Masayuki Tadokoro, paper craft artisan (right)
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Handcraft of Bossa: at the artisan’s workshop
Watch his careful work in this 2-minute video. Commentary follows.
動画：Bossa / 坊茶「匠のアート版」- ペーパークラフト職人の工房にて
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Perfectly aligned foil stamping technique
The dots on Bossa tiles are foil-stamped in black and white. In the general technique, the black and white dots are more or less misaligned because the foil is stamped twice on two different plates. In Bossa, however, there is absolutely no misalignment. This is because two colors are stamped at once on one plate so that the black and white dots are perfectly and precisely aligned.
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To stamp at once with one plate, small pieces of white foil are placed only where the white dots should be. This is a very delicate process using tweezers. Then overlap black foil on top of those and press.
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After it, remove the sheet of foil. The small pieces of white foil are removed with tweezers. Great care must be taken not to damage them.
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Combining layers of paper by hand feel
Layer different colors of dyed paper and paste them together. The CLASSIC edition has 2 layers, the CLASSIC-neo has 3 layers, and THE ART edition has 9 layers. Using a special handmade tool, adjust the cross section so that it is not too flat, creating a comfortable “gap” to the touch, paste the sheets together. This delicate sensitivity is unique to Mr. Tadokoro and is the secret to THE ART being THE ART. Not only the beauty visible to the eye, but also the feel of the piece when you touch it is art.
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To go a little deeper, paper has a direction and a face and back. If all of these are pasted together in the same orientation, they will always be distorted. How should they be combined? It is not easy. To that end, he has a secret solution, the result of his trial-and-error process.
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Inspection of tile finish condition
Inspect the completed tiles. Using a magnifying glass, each tile is checked in detail. Only the tiles that pass the inspection are boxed.
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5 editions of artisan-made Bossa
CLASSIC-neo (Right) and CLASSIC (left)
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THE ART "yuki", 2023 new edition
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THE ART "mizu"
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THE ART "hana"
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Two sets a day? Really precious!
Can you imagine how many sets of Bossa components he and his team handcraft per day with this much craftsmanship and time?
At the capacity his team has, it's about 15 CLASSIC-neo/CLASSIC edition sets max. And THE ART edition, which only Mr. Tadokoro can handcraft, is only 2 to 4 sets a day. That is just THE ART, really valuable, don't you think?
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For THE ART edition we issue a serial number certificate for each set and include it in the box.
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Thank you for reading. And thank you again for your support of our project.
We hope that Bossa will become a valuable part of your collection and that you will enjoy the game for many years to come.
Hiroshi MAEDA, Team Leader
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Related videos
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Tile comparison of Bossa editions: You can find out the specifications of each edition (size and thickness, material and printing/foil stamping differences).
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Tile SOUND comparison of Bossa editions: You can get to know the sound differences between the backside material, size and layered structure of the tiles in each edition.
*Note: THE ART "yuki" has the same backside material as "hana", so the sound is almost the same.
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Bossa THE ART edition tiles durability: You can see some experiments on the durability of THE ART edition.
*Note: THE ART "yuki" has the same surface finish as "hana".
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Bossa 2023 new editions
Now accepting late pledges!
The Kickstarter campaign ended on February 23 with success!
Currently accepting late pledges on Indiegogo for worldwide shipping.
→ Bossa 2023 on Indiegogo
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