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


Survey on Conservation and Restoration of Modern and Contemporary Art in Europe

ICN Amsterdam Head Office, Laboratory of Materials. The shelves on the right are full of various plastic products lined up by color. They were collected by researchers at flea markets and other locations.

 As part of the documentary material research promoted by the Department of Research Programming, we performed a survey from August 2 to 13 centering on the Tate Gallery in the UK and Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage (ICN).
 Various experimental styles and materials were used for modern and contemporary works of art because recently how those works will be passed down to future generations has become a big issue. With one work, the process of decay itself is an innate part of the work, while with another, new materials, including plastics, are used. These are new challenges for the organizations and specialists engaged in the conservation and restoration of cultural heritage.
 This survey focused on the International Network for the Conservation of Contemporary Art (INCCA; based inside ICN in Amsterdam) and, as a part of the project, the Interview with Artists project performed by Tate in London in which they interview with living artists about their works, archive the records of them and open them to the public systematically. We visited related organizations and listed to relevant personnel in order to find out how Europe is tackling new challenges related to modern and contemporary art.
 As a noteworthy achievement, we got great suggestions on the issue of originality and the conservation thereof, the topic of the international research assembly held last year by the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo. Additionally, we were deeply interested in the relationship between the three parties – ICN (the Netherlands version of the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo), the INCCA network in ICN, and the Tate, Britain, which is shouldering one INCCA project. They were presenting a model of how a new project should be run while confronting the globally-shared difficult situation, such as shortfall in funds, human resources, and privatization of organizations. We will introduce anew the details on this matter in the Bijutsu Kenkyu (Journal of Art Studies) published by the Department of Research Programming.


Kuroda Seiki: Master Western-style Painter of Modern Japan Exhibition

 The Kuroda Seiki Exhibition held at the Shimane Prefectural Iwami Art Museum from July 18 (Saturday) to August 31 (Monday) attracted some 15,177 visitors. The daily average number of visitors was a record since the opening commemorative exhibition of the Iwami Art Museum. More than 80 percent of the visitors answered exit questionnaires conducted by the museum on August 1. Many visitors came from the prefectures near Shimane – approximately 30% from Hiroshima, 10% from Yamaguchi – and all respondents said they were satisfied with the exhibition. A variety of devices were used to advertise this exhibition such as distributing tissue pouches with painting of “Lakeside”, reproducing and giving the first 30 visitors each day a reproduction of the paper fan with Uchiwa painted in “Lakeside”. We carried out the following related events, which attracted many participants: a lecture on August 1 by Ms. Yamanashi Emiko of our Institute’s Department of Research Programming titled “Modernization or Japanese paintings and Kuroda Seiki”, a workshop producing drawings and paintings in watercolors using a model wearing similar Kimono to that in “Lakeside” on August 8, and a lecture titled “Kuroda Seiki and Mori Ogai” on August 29 by the head curator of the Iwami Art Museum, Ms. Kawanishi Yuri. Next year, the Kuroda Seiki Exhibition will be held at the Iwate Museum of Art.


Researching Japanese Works of Art at Portland Art Museum

Researching the folding screen owned by the Portland Art Museum

 The Portland Art Museum in Oregon, founded in 1892, is the oldest museum on the West Coast of the US. Among approximately 42,000 works stored in the museum are some 4,000 Asian art works. For four days from August 17 to 20, 2009, Mr. Watada Minoru, Mr. Tsuchiya Takahiro and Ms. Emura Tomoko of the Department of Research Programming examined more than 30 works in the Portland Museum produced from the Muromachi to the Edo Period, including Japanese paintings, folding screens and kakefuku and created research records for each work. For works with a poor storage state, they recorded the damage status in detail, and did research and examination from the standpoint of art history, discussing with the curators in charge at the Portland Art Museum. There were some works which have not been introduced up to now and some excellent and important works, and despite the limited time we were able to do significant research. We will announce the results at an Institute research meeting and will introduce those works in the Bijutsu Kenkyu (Journal of Art Studies) and other journals to further enrich the art materials and make efforts toward international research exchange.


Donation of a Glass Dry Plate and Prints of Swords

 We recently received an offer of donation of a glass dry plate and prints of swords from Otsukakogei-shinsha Co., Ltd. (Sueharu Sato, President and CEO). Delivery to the Institute was completed on Monday, August 10. The Archives Section of the Department of Research Programming, which received the donation, is planning on organizing the donated materials starting with the prints with an eye toward utilizing both the glass dry plate and the prints as the Institute’s cultural heritage materials.


Kuroda Seiki: Master Western-style Painter of Modern Japan Exhibition held at the Shimane Prefectural Iwami Art Museum

The site of Kuroda Seiki Exhibition held at the Shimane Prefectural Iwami Art Museum

 To commemorate the achievements of Kuroda Seiki and contribute to the development of regional culture, we have jointly held the Kuroda Seiki: Master Western-style Painter of Modern Japan exhibition with the host museum every year since 1977. This year, the exhibition is being held at the Shimane Prefectural Iwami Art Museum from July 18 (Saturday) to August 31 (Monday). 147 oil paintings and drawings including designated Important Cultural Properties “Lakeside” and “Wisdom, Impression, Sentiment”, a sketch block, and letters are to be exhibited. The paintings of Kuroda Seiki can be tracked from his early to later years.
 Iwami is the birthplace of Mori Ogai, a great literary figure in the Meiji Period. Ogai went to Germany to study hygiene as an Army doctor and stayed there from 1884 to 1888. During this time, he frequently visited art museums and theaters and became familiar with arts. After returning to Japan, he added art criticism to his literary activities. When Kuroda Seiki submitted “Wisdom, Impression, Sentiment” to the Second Hakubakai during a debate about nude drawings, and received bad press, Ogai stated that he himself admired this work. Later in life, Ogai became the first Director of Teikoku Bijutsuin (Imperial Art Academy), and when he died in 1922, Kuroda was his successor: Thus, the two had various points of contact.
 The Iwami Art Museum exhibits materials related to Ogai in the regular exhibition room along with the Kuroda Seiki exhibition. The works of Kuroda and his teacher Raphael Collin and the works of western painter/chirographer Nakamura Fusetsu, who wrote Ogai’s epitaph, are exhibited together so that visitors can learn about the friendship of cultural figures in the Meiji (1868-1912) and Taisho (1912-1926) Periods.


Publication of the 2009 Profile

2009 Profile of National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo

 The 2009 Profile of National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo has been published.
 Profile visually and comprehensively introduces the activities, training sessions, advice and instructions, graduate education, international symposiums, open lectures, transmission of information, printed publication, and other such projects featured by our Institute’s research organizations, departments, and centers in the past year. The Profile is published in Japanese and English.
 Copies of Profile are distributed to national and prefectural art galleries and museums, prefectural and government-designated city boards of education, buried cultural property centers, university libraries that have cultural property research departments, embassies, and friendship associations by one copy for each as reference material.
 Copies of Profile are also distributed at the Kuroda Memorial Hall and the Research Institute, together withTobunken News, for use by the general public. Profile is also posted on our Website in PDF format.


For Effective Database Use: Transmitting Information on Art Data Spread by Association

Mr. Marukawa’s workshop

 The Institute has accumulated various materials from its investigation and research into tangible and intangible cultural properties in various fields. As such, the Institute has invited Mr. Marukawa Yuzo, Associate Professor (by special appointment) of the National Institute of Informatics, as a visiting researcher. In cooperation with him, we are trying to determine the best method of publicizing the data on material accumulated by our Institute so that they can be used effectively. As part of this project, Mr. Marukawa presented a lecture entitled “Transmitting Information on Art Data Spread by Association” on June 23. He introduced an association retrieval system that allows cross-searching of multiple databases designated by the retrieving person. He then showed how to use the system and demonstrated association retrieval using the data owned by our Institute. We concentrate on the collection and storage of materials as basic data, and plan to more carefully examine our electronic information disclosure methods going forward.


Research Conference on the 2nd Optical Survey of Five Hundred Luohan stored at Daitoku-ji Temple

Investigative Commission of the Five Hundred Luohan stored at Daitoku-ji

 The Department of Research Programming has started a project entitled “Survey Research on Applications of High-definition Digital Images” and has proceeded with investigative research that aims to create image data that is essential for research in art history and the developmental utilization thereof. As part of this project, we concluded a research agreement with the Nara National Museum that allowed us to survey and photograph the Five Hundred Luohan stored at Daitoku-ji in May 2009 (refer to the article in the May 2009 Monthly Report). We held a research conference on June 15 to further examine the research obtained in the survey in which we invited Mr. Taniguchi Kosei, Ms. Kitazawa Natsuki and Mr. Ide Seinosuke (visiting researcher of the Nara National Museum, professor of Kyushu University) from the Nara National Museum. Our staff members Tanaka, Tsuda, Shirono, Torimitsu, and Tsuchiya participated as well.
 After the survey in May, we processed the photographed images one by one; inscriptions which were unclear during the survey became legible. At the subsequent research conference, we confirmed the inscriptions and interpreted the dates, painters, and dedicators thereof. We are planning a second survey in the coming autumn with reports to be submitted in the following years. Most importantly, Shirono reported on the factors behind the deletion of this painting’s inscription, and we reconfirmed that this survey has significant meaning.
 A “quick report” of the achievements of this survey and research conference can be seen at the Sacred Ningbo, the Origin of 1300 years of Japanese Buddhism: Everything Has Come from Here exhibition (http://www.narahaku.go.jp/exhibition/2009toku/ningbo/ningbo_index.html) (link rot) held by the Nara National Museum. A complete picture of the inscriptions in the Five Hundred Luohan stored at Daitoku-ji, along with the background of creation of this painting, will be revealed at this exhibition.


Optical Survey of Five Hundred Luohan stored at Daitoku-ji

Photograph of the investigation held at Nara National Museum. (The existence of inscriptions is confirmed using light source equipment that emits light of various wavelengths)

 The Department of Research Programming has concluded a Contract for Optical Survey and Creation of High Definition Digital Content regarding Buddhist Art with Nara National Museum and has been carrying out joint research. As part of this contract, we studied and photographed the Five Hundred Luohan stored at Daitoku-ji from May 11 to 17, 2009 at Nara National Museum.
 Daitoku-ji’s Five Hundred Luohan is a very important work in art history, and a total of one hundred pieces of artwork were created by artists Lin Tinggui and Zhou Jichang from Junki 5 (1178) in Ningbo in Southern Song over a period of almost 10 years. Out of the existing 96 pieces (excluding the complementary works made in the Edo period), 37 pieces in total have been confirmed to have inscriptions, but these descriptions difficult to decipher with the naked eye due to aging deterioration.
 This survey started with the goal of learning about these inscriptions using optical methods such as fluorescent recording, and an additional 11 inscriptions (43 inscriptions in total) were confirmed. This is a meaningful finding not only in terms of art history, but also in terms of the history of this period and the history of religion.
 A conference will be held in mid-June by persons involved from both organizations based on the images shot during this survey, and will serve as investigation material for the second survey scheduled to be performed in autumn. Additionally, these survey results will be presented in part at Sacred Ningbo, the Origin of 1300 years of Japanese Buddhism: Everything Has Come from Here (http://www.narahaku.go.jp/exhibition/2009toku/ningbo/ningbo_index.html) (link rot). It will also be summarized as a report sometime in or after the next fiscal year through further survey and investigation.


Optical Survey of Copper Bodhisattva in Pensive Pose with One Leg Pendent at Hyakusaiji Temple in Shiga

 On May 12, Mr. Tsuda Tetsuei and Ms. Sarai Mai of the Department of Research Programming conducted X-ray transmission photography and fluorescent X-ray non-destructive analysis of a copper bodhisattva in a pensive pose with one leg pendent from Hyakusaiji temple in Shiga as part of the current two-year plan, Investigation of and Research into Statues in Omi in Ancient and Medieval Times, Centering on Previously Undisclosed Statues such as Hidden Buddha Statues, at the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo. Funds for investigation and research were provided by the Idemitsu Culture and Welfare Foundation, and Mr. Inuzuka Masahide and Hayakawa Yasuhiro of the Center for Conservation Science and Restoration Techniques offered their services as well. At 13:00 on May 12, the statue was brought into the Institute by the two curators from the Miho Museum who then conducted joint research with us and the resident priest of Hyakusaiji temple. The main purposes of this research were to examine the structure using X-ray transmission photography in order to check whether the head and body of the statue, where reconnection was visible at the breast, were created around the same time, and also to check the copper components in both parts using fluorescent X-ray non-destructive analysis. The statue will be open for viewing by the public this summer at Miho Museum.


New Children’s Website Created

 In May 2009, we created a new children’s website aimed at elementary and junior high school students. In the section entitled “All about working at Tobunken”, visitors can learn about the activities of the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo in card format.
 We hope that children will take advantage of this website together with the What’s the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo?
(http://www.tobunken.go.jp/~joho/japanese/publication/kids/2008.pdf) (link rot) children’s brochure published last July for their independent research projects during summer vacation. Please take some time to visit the website at http://www.tobunken.go.jp/kids/index.html.


Interview with Mr. Hieda Kazuho

Mr. Hieda Kazuho being interviewed
At the Education Ministry’s Art Research Institute after evacuation to Sakata City, Yamagata - Mr. Hieda (far right), and Mr. Umezu Jiro (far left) who was a staff member of the Institute

 The Japanese-style painter Hieda Kazuho (born in 1920), holder of the Cultural Order, is Professor Emeritus of Tokyo University of the Arts and a founding member of Sougakai. He graduated from Tokyo School of Fine Arts in 1943, and from the following year he worked for the Art Research Institute, the former National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo, as a temporary employee for one year.
 The institute is currently editing Text Edition of 75-year history of National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo, which will be published this year. As such, we interviewed many associated persons to ask them about the history of the Institute so that we can compile records.
 On April 14, we visited Mr. Hieda at his home in Tokyo, and he talked his early years at the Institute. In 1944, when war damage increased because of air attacks and the Institute was forced to evacuate its materials, Mr. Hieda took part in the evacuation work. He told us that he stayed at an evacuation home – Sakata City, Yamagata – for half a year, to protect the materials, until he received call-up papers in August 1945, and went home to Nara to enter the army. In the train that was on the way home, he found out about the end of the war. Despite his advanced age, he gave us an interview that lasted over 90 minutes, and we have a record of his valuable experience.


Association Retrieval Site “So (Imagine)” and Art Documents Retrieval Database

So (Imagine)

 The Department of Research Programming has made public its database for retrieving art documents starting from October of last year (during trial operation). The database consists of 268,000 cases and allows users to browse, from an overwhelming amount of data, art documents published between 1966 and 2004 by using three search categories: editors/authors, keywords and titles of journals. The Department, whose major goals are to accumulate and disseminate information, is now promoting collaboration with other sites to enhance dissemination. One such collaboration is with the unique association retrieval site “So (Imagine) ” that was started by the National Institute of Informatics. Mr. Nakamura Yoshifumi, a researcher of the National Institute of Informatics and a visiting researcher in our Department from this year, demonstrated the operation of this site at a research seminar of the Department held on April 21. If the art documents retrieval database is successfully associated with “So (Imagine),” we expect that a simultaneous display of information from various fields, not just that of art, will be possible.


Issuing “A Study of Exhibits from Art Exhibitions of the Showa Era – Pre-World War II Volume”

“Samurai with artistic taste...”
(Sino-Japanese War Graphics Vol. 10)
From “Drawing and Painting Soldiers from the Edges of the Japan-China War Battlefront and Art” (Kawada Akihisa) There were many drawing and painting soldiers in the battle area of the Japan-China War, and their artworks were widely known as a war pictures with reality.

 The Department of Research Programming has issued the collected papers of 26 domestic researchers, as shown in the title above. This document is an achievement of the project study “Integrated research on modern and contemporary art.” As a research edition of “A Study of Exhibits from Art Exhibitions of the Showa Era – Pre-World War II Volume”, basic data compilation issued in 2006, the trends of art before World War II are shown from the viewpoints of each researcher from various perspectives. The document targets the various genres of paintings and sculptures, engravings, photographs, and art works based on trend of the exhibits and art galleries, and it also includes themes particular to the pre-World War II period, such as proletarian art and war pictures. Please examine the various issues regarding art in the Showa Era. We hope that they will offer you new findings and help you to raise awareness of the issues involved.
 Refer to the pages issued by the Department of Research Programming for the titles of papers and the authors.
http://www.tobunken.go.jp/~joho/japanese/publication/book/showaki.html
This document is available from Chuokoron Art Publishers. http://www.chukobi.co.jp/products/detail.php?product_id=383


Investigation of a 2.4 m Seated Wooden Buddha Statue from the Heian Period

 Mr. Tsuda Tetsuei and Ms. Sarai Mai of the Department of Research Programming will start this year to investigate and research important sculptures in Shiga Prefecture in a two-year plan, Investigation of and Research into Statues in Omi in Ancient and Medieval Times, Centering on Previously Undisclosed Statues such as Hidden Buddha Statues (representative researcher Tsuda Tetsuei). The two received funds for the investigation and research from the Idemitsu Culture and Welfare Foundation, and received cooperation from the research staff, who have special bonding with Shiga Prefecture, centered on Miho Museum. As our first project, we investigated the seated Avalokitesvara statue (245.3 cm high) at the Kannondo of Tendaishu Zensuiji Temple on Mt. Iwanesan in Koga City from the early morning until the evening of Sunday, April 26. The existence of this statue was generally unknown up to now, and this is the first project to move it. Based on the style of the statue, it was probably carved in the late Heian Period, and it was kept in relatively good condition. We were given a glimpse into the abundance and versatility of the cultural properties of Shiga Prefecture, where such a great work existed unnoticed by most people.


‘Yearbook of Japanese Art, 2007 Edition’ Issued and “Reviewing Exhibition Catalogs” Symposium Presented

‘Year Book of Japanese Art, 2007 Edition’
“Reviewing Exhibition Catalogs”Symposium

 ‘The Yearbook of Japanese Art, 2007’ edition was issued on March 25, the 64th volume since it was first published in 1936. Needless to say, this yearbook is a collection of materials that records trends in “art” in the corresponding year, with a focus on domestic movement; this book looks at the basic material of Japanese art.
 Meanwhile, on March 20, the aforementioned symposium was hosted by the Japan Art Documentation Society (Venue: Umene Memorial Library of Wako University). The keynote report was followed by five presentations, including my presentation, entitled ‘Yearbook of Japanese Art and Exhibition Catalogs’. I reported on how the “exhibition catalogs” have been treated as materials in the “Yearbook of Japanese Art”, which has a history of over half a century, along with some issues regarding the current problems. Starting in 1984 the exhibition catalog in the Yearbook has been treated as “document materials”; starting in the 1999 edition, it has shown the documents included in the exhibition catalogs by providing one chapter on documents included in “art exhibition picture records”. This is to demonstrate that the exhibition catalogs include precise materials and data from an academic viewpoint. These catalogs have increased in tandem with the increase in establishment of new museums and art galleries since the 1980s. For example, the newest “2007 edition” includes 325 “picture records” from among 1888 exhibition data cases; 943 documents were selected from those records and are shown in the catalog. The importance of “exhibition catalogs” in terms of research is widely recognized: When editing the ‘Yearbook of Japanese Art’, I reported on how we can overcome the difficulty of closely investigating the documents as data and proceeding with a new edition while aiming at a comprehensive collection.


“Photos Taken of Kuroda Seiki II” Featured and Exhibited in Kuroda Memorial Hall

 Nowadays everyone easily uses a camera and takes pictures. But in the days when photography such as adjustment of focus, exposure, development was entirely left to manual operations, photographs were very valuable: Those photo data became clues to examining the corresponding age, including the background behind the photograph.
 In 2006 and 2007, Mr. Kaneko Mitsuo, a descendant of Kuroda Seiki’s wife Teruko, donated the photos and mementos of Kuroda Seiki that Mr. Kaneko had kept stored to the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo. The Institute’s Department of Research Programming investigated and arranged the logs of these materials and relevant items, and held an exhibition entitled “Photos Taken of Kuroda Seiki” in the Kuroda Memorial Hall last year. This project revealed the Kuroda image in a public place and included images such as a large-sized portrait of Kuroda Seiki in a court dress taken by Ogawa Kazumasa, an Imperial art specialist.
 This year, “Photos Taken of Kuroda Seiki II” was held in the Kuroda Memorial Hall from March 19 (Thu) to July 9 (Thu), with themes including “family portraits” and “painter’s atelier” for the second time. Kuroda painted the woman who later became his wife in Lakeside, and he painted his family as models in many works. In addition to the portraits of his natural father, adoptive father, and mother, he used models; his niece Kimiko appeared in Sunlight shone through trees, another niece appeared in Yukiko, 11 year-old girl, his wife Teruko in Portrait of a woman (charcoal/paper, 1898) and Portrait of a woman (oil painting/canvas, 1911-1912). When comparing the photos of these people and the pictures painted by Kuroda, we find that the works were not simply portraits of which main purpose is resemblance, as the title Lakeside implies, but they also provide an opportunity to consider reproducibility and fictitiousness in paintings and photos.
 The photos focus on the painter in his atelier and his concentration while he was producing the works. From the work hanging in the atelier we can understand the painter’s interests, and from the photos with models we can also grasp his relationship with them.
 To prevent the originals of these photo materials from deteriorating by exhibition, pictures with the original texture preserved and reproduced to full-size photographs are exhibited. This demonstrates the results obtained by research and development of digital image formation technology that can conserve photo data and show it to the public. We will continue to promote the studying of Kuroda Seiki while considering the conservation of the data itself, and plan to exhibit/release the results in Kuroda Memorial Hall.


Study Related to the Cooperative Program for the Conservation of Japanese Art Objects Overseas

Roma scroll tentatively attached and dried (partial)

 One of the works that we are restoring this year is Mushi Uta-awase Emaki (Insect Poetry Contest hand scroll), owned by the Roma National Museum of East Asian Art (Italia). This is a lovable picture scroll that shows various insects struggling to master waka poetry, but it was clear that there were some parts missing and some pages were out of order. We looked for a similar scroll and found a complete example with the same content stored in a personal residence. When the circumstances were explained to the owner, he willingly consented to the examination, and we could see the actual work on Thursday, February 5. Although some questions remained, it was revealed that both scrolls had been very close; the privately owned scroll had been created by directly copying the Roma scroll (in its initial complete state), or perhaps there was an original that was common to both. As such, those pages that were out of order in the Roma scroll were corrected due to this evidence, and the missing parts were handled appropriately with confidence. On the same day, we brought the results to the shokakudo in Kyoto City that was performing the restoration work, and there we held final discussions on restoration. For the scroll, work on the actual sheets was nearly completed, and then tentatively attached and dried. In the near future, it will be returned to the rolled mount, and restoration will be complete. Then the scroll will be open to public view in the Tokyo National Museum in late May before it is returned to Italy.


“Phoenix Hall of Byodo-in Temple, the Wall Behind the Buddha Investigation Material List: Color Image Edition” issued

“Phoenix Hall of Byodo-in Temple, the Wall Behind the Buddha Investigation Material List: Color Image Edition”

 The Institute examined the wall-behind-Buddha in the Phoenix Hall in 2004 and 2005, in cooperation with Byodo-in Temple in Uji-city, Kyoto. This examination was carried out along with the repair of the national treasure seated Amitabha Tathagata and canopy in Phoenix Hall, which was carried out for five years starting in 2003. In this project, entitled “Heisei Large Repair”, the halo and pedestal, as well as the Buddha, were brought out from the Hall, and the wall behind the Buddha, which usually cannot be seen in detail, became visible. The examination included the color, fluorescence, and near infrared photography of this wall, as well as a pigmentation survey. This was the first time that the entire wall behind the Buddha was photographed since its founding. On January 23, a news conference was held at Byodo-in Temple and it was reported on newspapers and NHK news.
 The material list that will be issued includes a near infrared image edition in 2009, and a fluoroscopic image/ fluorescent X-ray analysis data edition in 2010. There are various opinions on the subject and date of the painting of the wall behind the Buddha, so we hope that a series of reports will provide useful information on the future study of art history.


Museum of Fine Arts, Houston – Cooperation on Exhibition and Lecture for Commemorative Symposium

Hie Sanno Sairei-Zu folding screen
Commemorative symposium lecture by Ms. Emura
Interactive display in exhibit room

 In commemoration of the repair of “the Hie Sanno Sairei-Zu folding screen” completed under the Cooperative Program for the Conservation of Japanese Art Objects Overseas in 2007, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, which owns the screen, is holding an exhibit of the repaired screen entitled “Art Unfolded: Japan’s Gift of Conservation” from January 17 to February 22. Before starting repair, the Museum wanted to exhibit the materials/tools and processes that were used for the actual repair, along with the repaired work, so that Japanese culture and traditional techniques could be comprehensively understood. Our Institute cooperated with preparation activities. In the exhibit room, the Chinese papers, paints for repair, brushes, round knives, and other tools have been placed in an exhibit case with a touch panel sensor: This makes an interactive display that enables viewers to touch the case and view a video explaining the stored items and repair processes. This display was very well received because it gave a deeper understanding of the conservation and restoration of Japanese cultural properties which were little known overseas. At the same time, the Museum played a video showing the actual Hie Sanno festival in cooperation with the Otsu City Museum of History, along with “Weaving Gold Brocade: Mounted Strips Decorating Calligraphic Works and Paintings” in cooperation with the Kyushu National Museum. It deeply introduced Japanese traditional culture.
 On January 19, a symposium was held commemorating the exhibit (aid: Japan-United States Arts Program, Japan Foundation). Following greetings by Mr. Ohsawa Tsutomu, the Japanese Consul General in Houston, Mr. Takahiro Nakamura, Conservator for the Association for the Conservation of National Treasures, Kyushu Section, gave a lecture entitled “Treasured Japanese Tradition: Conservation of the Hie Sanno Sairei-Zu Screens”; Mr. Nakamura was in charge of the actual repair. Tomoko Emura presented a lecture on the characteristics of the work from the viewpoint of art history, entitled “A Divine Procession: The Hie Sanno Sairei-Zu”.
 More than 150 people gathered in the Hall of the Museum, and symposium was a valuable opportunity in terms of both reports on the results of the research and engaging in international cultural exchange.


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