| ■Tokyo National Research
Institute for Cultural Properties |
■Center for Conservation
Science |
| ■Department of Art Research,
Archives and Information Systems |
■Japan Center for
International Cooperation in Conservation |
| ■Department of Intangible
Cultural Heritage |
|
Study group, presentation by Dr. Chinghsin Wu
From a sketch by SAMIZU Kōhei. The upper right corner reads “October, in Yogyakarta,” indicating that it was drawn in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in October 1942.
From April to August of this year, Associate Teaching Professor Chinghsin Wu of Rutgers University in the United States visited our institute as a visiting researcher. Specializing in modern art, Dr. Wu had previously visited Japan as a visiting researcher at our institute in 2007, conducting research on Japanese surrealism centered on the work of KOGA Harue. During this recent stay, she focused her research on the portrayal of imagery in Taiwan in modern Japanese art.
On July 17, we held a hybrid seminar, featuring presentations by Professor Wu and Ms. MORIKAWA Monami, a curator at the Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art. Dr. Wu gave a presentation titled “The Activities and Development of Modern Japanese Painters in Taiwan: Focusing on the Works of KINOSHITA Seigai and Other Japanese Painters of the Same Era Before and After Their Move to Taiwan,” in which she discussed the changes in the themes and styles of paintings by Japanese painters who were active in Taiwan during the colonial era, such as KINOSHITA Seigai (1887-1988) and GOHARA Kotoh (1887-1965), after their move to Taiwan. Ms. MORIKAWA’s presentation, “SAMIZU Kōhei’s Southern Military Sketches: Records of Japan’s Occupied Territories and Colonies during Wartime,” introduced the wartime military sketches of oil painter SAMIZU Kōhei (1904–1997) and pointed out the historical value of sketches he created in Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan, Manchuria, and other locations as visual records of Japan’s occupied territories. In the discussion following the presentation, the presenters exchanged opinions on the image of the “South” as depicted by Japanese painters before the war. Researchers from inside and outside the Institute also joined in the discussion, which focused on the painting styles seen in the flower-and-bird paintings of Seigai and Kotoh, as well as the significance of SAMIZU’s sketches of the occupied territories during the war.
Tour of the laboratories
Lecture on analytical investigation
Group discussion on the conservation environment
Q&A lecture on deterioration and conservation of outdoor materials
An annual course, called the “Training Course for Museum Curators in Charge of Conservation (Advanced Course) in 2025,” was held from July 7 to 11, 2025. This training course, which has been held at the Institute since 1984, was originally a single general course, and was reorganized into a “Basic Course” and an “Advanced Course” in 2021, with the aim of enabling curators in charge of conservation at museums to acquire appropriate expertise necessary for their work, from basic to advanced.
The “Basic Course,” conducted by the National Center for the Promotion of Cultural Properties, is designed to provide curators in charge of the conservation environment in museums with a wide range of knowledge and skills.
The “Advanced Course” covers not only the conservation environment, but also general conservation of cultural properties, and is conducted by the Center for Conservation Science. In the 2025 Advanced Course, lectures and practical training based on research results in various research fields were conducted by the Center for Conservation Science, and lectures on the conservation and restoration of various cultural properties and cultural property rescue were provided by external lecturers. This year, as the use of fumigants that are effective against mold has been restricted, there was a lot of interest in lectures and practical training on alternatives.
The lecture topics were as follows:
・Theory of restoration of cultural properties
・Scientific investigation of cultural properties
・Air quality (about air quality / effects of air pollution on cultural properties / concepts of ventilation)
・Theory and discuss of storage environment
・Introduction and practice of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) for cultural properties
・Types and characteristics of restoration materials
・Deterioration and conservation of outdoor materials
・Protection of heritage of modernization
・Conservation and restoration of various cultural properties
・Disaster prevention in museums
・Conservation and restoration of folk artifacts
・Preservation of large volumes of documents, and countermeasures against deterioration
・Conservation and restoration of works on paper
・Preservation and management of photographs
Participants commented, “I was able to gain a lot of knowledge that can be used in cultural heritage preservation throughout the region, not just at my own museum, so I would like to share the information with curators in the area and put the knowledge I gained into practice from a broader perspective,” and “Throughout the training period, I was able to connect with other participants, and it was a good opportunity to meet colleagues from all over the country who are in the same position and with whom I can consult more professionally about practical issues.” These comments suggest that this training served as a forum for building connections with other museums, which was one of the aims of the training. There were also comments that it would be good to have more opportunities for discussion and practical training in addition to lectures, and we will consider further enhancing the content of the training in the future.
UNESCO Headquarters: Venue of the 47th session of the World Heritage Committee
A scene from the deliberations in Salle I (main hall) during the session
The Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties (TOBUNKEN) dispatched three staff members to participate in the 47th session of the World Heritage Committee, held at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris from July 6 to 16, 2025. This year’s committee session was originally planned to be held in Bulgaria, which had been appointed to the presidency. However, the venue was changed during the preparation process due to security concerns.
Although the session usually proceeds smoothly, this time it began in an unusually chaotic manner, due to a proposal requested by the delegation of Türkiye for the exclusion of the NGO “Save the Tigris Foundation” as an observer and the addition of an agenda item to discuss Japan’s response to the World Heritage Committee’s decision at its 39th Session regarding the “Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution” requested by the delegation of the Republic of Korea. The proposal to add the agenda item was finally rejected by secret ballot among the Committee members, as consensus could not be reached despite exhaustive discussions that exceeded the scheduled time. On the other hand, the proposal to exclude the NGO from observer status was approved with minimal discussion, prompting widespread concern and objection from State Parties regarding how the Committee members handled the matter.
In the review of the state of conservation of inscribed properties, 248 sites were discussed, including 56 listed as “World Heritage in Danger,” and 3 sites were successfully removed from the Danger List. Recently, an increasing number of properties remaining on the Danger List for extended periods has been recognized by the Committee as a serious concern. State Parties are strongly encouraged to make greater efforts to improve the conditions of these sites. In the establishment of the World Heritage List, 31 sites were discussed, and 26 sites were newly inscribed. A continuing trend of the Committee to overturn the evaluations of the Advisory Bodies has been noted, as evidenced by the fact that only 16 sites received a recommendation for inscription from the Advisory Bodies. However, some progress can be seen in bridging the gap between the evaluations of the Advisory Bodies and the perspectives of State Parties, as many properties have been inscribed with revised nominations that incorporate recommendations to improve their conservation status. As a result of this session, 170 out of 196 State Parties now have properties inscribed on the World Heritage List, with Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau joining for the first time. The uneven regional distribution of inscribed properties has been a long-standing issue for the Committee, as it undermines the representativeness of the World Heritage List. Efforts to correct systemic imbalances have been undertaken, including an updated and in-depth gap analysis conducted by the Advisory Bodies.
In addition, after discussions involving both supporting and opposing views, the outcome of the International Conference on Heritage Authenticity in Africa, held in Nairobi last May with support from the Japanese Funds-in-Trust for the Capacity-Building of Human Resources, was ultimately adopted by the Committee. This is expected to mark a turning point in the revision of value evaluation criteria within the World Heritage system.
The next session of the World Heritage Committee will be held in Busan, Korea, in July next year. TOBUNKEN will continue to monitor developments related to World Heritage and will actively collect and share a wide range of information.
The wall painting before and after cleaning
Scene of the work in progress
The apse after cleaning
The Japan Center for International Cooperation in Cultural Heritage is conducting a joint research project on the conservation and restoration of mural paintings on the interior walls of St. Michael’s Church (Keşlik Monastery) in Cappadocia, Turkey, in cooperation with domestic and international experts and academic institutions.
From June 21 to July 15, 2025, an on-site investigation was conducted in accordance with a conservation and restoration plan formulated based on the findings of the previous year’s field study. The work focused on cleaning the apse area of the church and reinforcing deteriorated plaster layers in the nave that were at risk of detachment. The wall paintings in this church had been obscured by a thick layer of soot for over a century, and no one in recent times had seen their full imagery. Through the careful and safe removal of these long-accumulated deposits during the recent cleaning process, the original colors and fine details of the paintings have been vividly revealed. This has enabled a more detailed examination of the initial iconographic design and painting techniques, yielding new insights into the chronology and stylistic characteristics of the works. Of particular significance is the fact that the practicality of the technical approach taken to the conservation and restoration, systematically developed through this research, was validated during the actual intervention. This constitutes a highly meaningful outcome, both academically and in terms of conservation practice.
This joint research project is an international conservation and restoration initiative led by the Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, in collaboration with specialized institutions and universities both within and outside of Turkey. In the current phase of the project, scientific conservation methods and three-dimensional measurement technologies were introduced with the aim of assessing the condition of the wall paintings during the conservation and restoration process. By examining the subject from multiple scientific and physical perspectives, the project seeks to establish conservation and restoration methods that are closely aligned with the specific characteristics of the wall paintings. This multifaceted and meticulous approach has been highly regarded as a pioneering case without precedent even within Turkey and has drawn significant attention. Moving forward, we aim to continue these meaningful activities in response to such expectations, contributing to the conservation and sustainable use of cultural heritage.
