To simplify a change in a printing pitch and a printing position in a letterpress printing machine which conducts printing continuously with an impression cylinder and a plate cylinder rotated.

In the letterpress printing machine which is equipped with the plate cylinder having a plate for printing fitted on the outer peripheral surface and rotating in a prescribed direction and with the impression cylinder adjacent to the plate cylinder and rotating in the opposite direction and conducts printing continuously on a sheet material passing between the plate cylinder and the impression cylinder, rotations of the impression cylinder and the plate cylinder are made adjustable independently of each other and the rotational speed of the plate cylinder at an arbitrary rotational angle in one rotation is made capable of being accelerated and decelerated, while the rotation of the plate cylinder is made to follow that of the impression cylinder.