Remember the Japanese manhole art culture we reported earlier? Well, much to our surprise, it is not just the Japanese who are drawn to this unusual placement of art. As it turns out, a pair of Irish blokes do too. Enchanted by this strangely attractive, exquisitely detailed manhole covers found randomly on the streets of Japan, the duo decided that since not everyone have a chance in seeing them in person, why not bring this beautiful art to everyone and they are doing so by transferring the manhole arts onto t-shirt where folks around the world can buy them.
So, yeah, you can proudly show off these work of art without actually having to carry a 40 kg metal with you and that’s actually not a bad idea at all. And they don’t just do anyhow; they have been collaborating with city and town offices where some of these decorated sewer covers are found and plucking them out of streets of Japan and presenting it to the rest of the world. For a start, five designs from four cities (Chichibu, Fuji, Wakuya, Kusatsu) will be offered.
Each graphic is a replica of the actual manhole cover which will be hand-printed by the duo using the good’ol silk screen printing process. In addition to the five graphics to choose from, you will be able to opt for the choice of t-shirt colors. Available in S, M, L, XL, and XX American sizes. You can find these Hand-printed in Tokyo Japanese Manhole Cover T-Shirts on Kickstarter where, for 3,600 Yen (US$32), you can pick up a tee and a hand calligraphed printed card as a pre-order.
If the campaign meets its set funding goal, you should be seeing your pre-order landing at your doorstep as soon as March. Speaking of which, as of this writing, the campaign is nearly funded and with 19 more days to go, it should be a reality. All it need is a few more pledges and voila! Manhole cover art on your chest is a done deal.
All images courtesy of 47regions.
Submitted via Mikeshouts’ Facebook Page.
