Workshop on the “Conservation of Japanese Paper and Silk Cultural Properties”

A demonstration of Japanese painting production techniques in the basic course
A demonstration of emergency treatment of hanging scroll in the applied course

 This workshop is held annually as a part of the Cooperative Program for the Conservation of Japanese Art Objects Overseas. This year, it was held at the Asian Art Museum, National Museums in Berlin, with the basic course, “Japanese paper and silk cultural properties,” from July 11th through 13th, and again with the applied course, “Restoration of Japanese hanging scrolls,” from the 16th through the 20th.
 In the basic course, following the practical process of cultural properties from creation, through mounting, exhibition and up to appreciation, we gave lectures, demonstrations and training for materials such as paper, pigmnets, paste,and animal glue, techniques of creating paintings,and caligraphy, mounting culture and handling of those cultural properties.
 In the applied course, we gave a workshop centered on practices in relation to restoring hanging scrolls using restoration techinques based on traditional Japanese mounting. We focused on the diagnosis of hanging scrolls, structure consiting of multiple paper layers of hanging scrolls, the emergency treatment and usage of traditional brushes and edged tools.
 Recently, the restoration techniques based on traditional Japanese mounting have been renowned abroad, and have come to be put to use in foreign paper cultural properties. However, for many foreign conservation specialists, the techniques are learned through reference books and hearsay. Through this workshop, we would like to offer an opportunity to understand the authentic materials and techniques to as many foreign conservation specialists as possible.

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