| ■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 |
|
Image taken from the Conference
In 2010 we will issue Number 400 of the in-house journal of the Institute’s Department of Research Programming “Art Studies (The Bijutsu Kenkyu)”. The Korean Art Research Institute of Hoshioka Cultural Foundation will issue Number 30 of the “Art History Forum”. Stemming from his assistance last year as an overseas member for the editorial board of the Bijutsu Kenkyu Mr. 洪善杓, Director of the Korean Art Research Institute and professor at the Ewha Womans University, an agreement was made to jointly hold a symposium, commemorating both journals.
On January 28, we welcomed five guests – Professor洪善杓, Mr. 鄭干澤 (Professor at Dongguk University), Ms. 文貞姫 (Scholarship Director at the Korean Art Research Institute), Mr. 張辰城 (Associate Professor at Seoul National University) and Mr. 徐潤慶 (full-time researcher at Korean Art Research Institute) – and held a conference with the researchers at our Department of Research Programming in preparation for the symposium.
As a result of the conference, we decided to hold the symposium with a theme of “Evaluation” in Tokyo (at our Institute) at the end of February 2011 and in Seoul (at Ewha Womans University) in the beginning of March 2011. We will have an keynote report (In Tokyo by Professor Mr. 洪善杓, and in Seoul by Mr. Tanaka of our Department of Research Programming) at the start of the symposium, followed by the presentation of research papers by two researchers from our Department and two researchers on the Korean side, after which comprehensive discussions will be held. Although the presentations will be given under the same theme, it is expected to have differences in the awareness of issues and thinking between the researchers of both countries, and we hope that understanding of these differences will deepen future mutual understanding and simultaneously further cooperative relationship between both journals.
Screen of Mobile Website
In January 2010, our Institute established a mobile website.
The website currently consists of “Newly arrived information”, “Greetings”, “Recruiting/Events/Tender Notices”, “Monthly Reports”, “Columns/Old Stories”, ”Research data search system”, “Tobunken Kids”, “Update History”, “Inquiries”, and a “Mobile Phone Standby Display”.
We will quickly and continuously transmit user-friendly information and provide interesting text such as columns. We would be very pleased if you visit our website on your way to work or school, or during breaks in study or research.
Tanaka Atsushi giving a presentation.
Poster session
On December 4 and 5, a research forum commemorating the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Art Documentation Society was held at the Heiseikan Auditorium of Tokyo National Museum (for the lecture) and the Heiseikan small hall (for presentations such as exhibits). The forum was subtitled as “The Current Status, Issues, and Future of the coalition of M(useums), L(ibraries) and A(rchives)”, and the presentations and exhibits were given by nine relevant organizations concerned with cultural properties as well as art. Our Institute’s Department of Research Programming participated in the forum, and I gave a presentation under the title “Focusing on the Digital Archives of the Yearbook of Japanese Art”: I referred to the significance of the Yearbook of Japanese Art, which was first issued in 1936 and continues to be issued today, and mentioned various issues concerned with the editing of the yearbook in the information age. Then I presented suggestions for the utilization of information accumulated to date and further active publication. For the exhibition, I introduced our Institute’s database of the interior photos of Nagoya Castle prior to its destruction by fire. As one of the accomplishments of the joint research with the National Institute of Informatics, I also introduced the database (prototype edition) on the association retrieval site So (Imagine), which contains valuable photos of various Asian areas taken by our former researcher Odaka Sennosuke in 1932. The presentations and exhibitions allowed me to introduce the current status of Department of Research Programming in terms of information transmission, and also gave a glimpse into the future.
In December 2009, we created a new English version of the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo’s Kids Pages.
The English version is composed of the “All our tasks”, “Active in the world”, “Why and what? Tobunken”, and “Link to cultural properties” pages in the same way as in the Japanese version.
Recently, the Institute has increasingly conducted activities linking to people overseas, including international cooperation for conserving and restoring overseas cultural properties originating in Japan and promotion of research collaboration with overseas researchers. These trends can also be seen in the Japanese Kids’ Pages “Tobunken shigoto zenbu (All our tasks)” and “Sekai de no katsuyaku” (Active in the world).
We created the English Kids’ Pages with the hope that children around the world will learn about activities of the Institute in the same way as Japanese children. The English Kids’ Pages are very unique among the websites in a country where English is not used as a native language, and are also the first cultural properties website for children.
Please visit the Kids Pages (English version):
http://www.tobunken.go.jp/english/kids/index.html
From December 2009 we started accepting registrations to our mail magazine.
The mail magazine will offer information about what’s new with at the website.
To register, visit the Institute’s website:
http://www.tobunken.go.jp/info/mail/mail.html
Joint Research Conference with Nara National Museum
The Department of Research Programming held a research conference at our conference room on Thursday, November 5 to proceed with the confirmation of the results of joint research and the editing of “Report” to be issued hereafter. Three persons in charge of the Nara National Museum participated in the conference and the six people of our department attended – Director Tanaka, Shirono, Torimitsu, Tsuda, Emura and Tsuchiya. We discussed how to execute the report of results obtained by researching the pedestal used for reading stored in Kasuga Taisha Shrine, the plate pictures on pedestals of Sakyamuni Buddha trinity and the Buddha of Healing stored in the Golden Hall of Horyu-ji Temple last autumn, and Five Hundred Luohan stored at Daitoku-ji Temple this May and September. Based on this conference, we are now editing the report of the results on the pedestal used for reading stored in Kasuga Taisha Shrine and the plate pictures on pedestals of the Sakyamuni Buddha trinity and the Buddha of Healing stored in the Golden Hall of Horyu-ji Temple for issuance at the end of this fiscal year.
As part of the Ueno no Yama Bunka Zone Festival, we provided a special opening period before and after the Culture Day (November 3), and opened the Kuroda Memorial Hall every day from 9:30 to 17:00, differing from its usual opening of twice a week. This year we specially opened the Hall for six days from November 3 (Tuesday) to 8 (Sunday), and had 1,895 visitors. The Kuroda Memorial Hall, built in accordance with the last wishes of oil painter Kuroda Seiki, was completed in 1928. It is an important building as a western style art gallery created by architect Okada Shinichiro and has permanent exhibitions of a significant collection of Kuroda Seiki’s paintings, including important cultural properties Lakeside and Wisdom, Impression, Sentiment. The Hall is usually open from 13:00 to 16:00 on Thursdays and Saturdays.
Panels displayed in at Ueno Junior High School in Taito City, Tokyo
On October 31, the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo exhibited panels at the school festival of Ueno Junior High School in Taito City, Tokyo. We displayed two subjects: Wall Paintings of Kitora Tumulus: Removal of Wall Paintings and Restoration Work and Restoration of Screens Illustrating Views of Kyoto and its Environs (owned by Royal Ontario Museum, Canada): 2006 Program for the Conservation of Japanese Art Objects Overseas.
The panels previously exhibited at the entrance of the Institute were reused. At the exhibition on the removal and restoration of Kitora Tumuli mural paintings, however, we also displayed the tools used for the restoration work, such as a diamond wire-saw, spatulas and work clothes, and screened a recorded video of mural painting removal.
The panels exhibited at the entrance of the Institute have never been displayed outside the Institute before. Although the exhibition was on display for only one day, approximately 400 Ueno Junior High School students, teachers, and guardians were able to view the panels.
The Kitora Tumuli mural paintings have frequently been covered by media in recent years, and the Screens Illustrating Views of Kyoto and its Environs have frequently been issued on schoolbooks of social studies as a pictorial cut, so these cultural properties might be familiar for the students at the Ueno Junior High School. We think it was a good opportunity for people to realize that a research institute that conserves the cultural properties and hands them down is located close to Ueno Junior High School.
This year, the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo published a brochure for children entitled What’s the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo? The aim of this brochure is to introduce the Institute to elementary school children and junior high school students.
When compared to the 2008’s edition, the format of the 2009’s edition was changed to B5, the number of pages to 16, and the content has been changed so that the activities of the Institute are introduced as topics.
This brochure is scheduled to be distributed to public elementary and junior high school students in Taito City. Of course, they are also available for visitors at the Institute and at Kuroda Memorial Hall.
PDF copies of the children’s brochure can be downloaded from the Institute’s website at the following URL: http://www.tobunken.go.jp/~joho/japanese/publication/kids/2009.pdf
Lecture by Tsuchiya Takahiro at Department of Research Programming
Lecture by Mr. Tsukamoto Maromitsu at The Museum Yamatobunkakan
Lecture by Nakano Teruo, the Deputy Director General of the Institute
Lecture by Mr. Shirasu Joushin at Hiroshima University
The Institute holds a public lecture every autumn in order to disclose the results of our research on art history. This public lecture is the 43rd with the first held in 1966. Since 2006, we have established a common theme titled “The Dynamics of Interaction between Objects and People”, and four researchers from both within and outside the Institute gave presentations on October 2nd and 3rd.
On October 2nd, Tsuchiya Takahiro, a researcher in the Department of Research Programming of the Institute, presented a lecture titled “Creating a ‘foreign country’: A Study of the Genjo Sanzo-e”, and Mr. Tsukamoto Maromitsu, a curator of The Museum Yamatobunkakan , presented a lecture titled “Japanese Buddhist Monk Viewed from the Song Dynasty: Buddhism/Land and the World of Exchange of Cultivated Things”: They intended to dig into how Japan in medieval times and China during the Song Dynasty viewed and recognized each other, using a picture scroll from the Kamakura Period, the transfer/exchange of cultivated things in the eastern Asia, and the social context of the time.
On October 3, Nakano Teruo, the Deputy Director General of the Institute, gave a lecture titled “Optical Investigation of Central Asian Mural Paintings Brought Back by the Ohtani Mission”and Mr. Shirasu Joushin, lecturer at Hiroshima University, had a lecture called “The Tibet Ohtani Mission and the Tibetan Religious World”. They tried to reevaluate the works discovered by the Ohtani mission from the viewpoint of art history based on recent optical investigation, and reviewed the responses of Japan, England, China and Russia concerning the activities of the Ohtani mission at that time.
These four individuals’ presentations reexamined the relationship of Asia to Japan in respective pre-modern and modern periods from the viewpoint of the broad effects and actions of goods, art objects, cultivated things and cultural properties, and the various activities of the people related to those goods. They were well suited to the common theme of The Dynamics of Interaction between Objects and People and were very exciting. The audience on these two days number totals of 133 and 125 people respectively, and questionnaires taken on both days showed that the lectures satisfied many people. We would like to continue disseminating the Institute’s research results in the future.
At the entrance side of the lobby
At the center of the lobby
At the recesses of the lobby
Starting September 18 (Friday), the Department of Research Programming is in charge of a panel exhibition at the entrance of Institute titled “Investigation and research of Buddha statues, using X-ray photography”. This exhibition was planned to introduce the investigation and research that has been conducted up to now, with the cooperation of the Center for Conservation Science and Restoration Techniques, as part of the research project of the Department of Research Programming titled “Cross-Disciplinary Study of Art Materials and Techniques”. The panel exhibition is scheduled to be held until the end of this year.
From September 25 to 27, 2009, a symposium titled “Tracing Japanese Buddhism” was held in commemoration of 50 years since the founding of the Center for Japanese Studies of University of California, Berkeley. The American, Japanese and European researchers who are majoring in Buddhism-related areas, such as Buddhist religion, Buddhist history and Buddhist art history, met and gave many lectures and reports. Vivid discussions were held with nearly 80 participants each day, offering precise opportunities to learn about each other’s research results. On the first day, there was a panel discussion on Buddhism art history on the topic of “Numinous Materials and Ecological Icons in Premodern Japanese Buddhism”, Sarai made presentations on the Healing Buddha of Jingoji temple, an outstanding statue sculpted from one wood, of the early Heian Period, as one of the panelists. Other panelists conducted reports that included the latest information, such as knowledge on recent research results about the species of trees used for carved wooden statues. In the US there seems to be many unknown things about Buddhist statues, partly because there is small number of researchers on Buddhist sculptures in Japan. We wish to positively promote international exchange, making use of opportunities like this, so that people will be interested in Japanese Buddhist statues.
Imaizumi Yusaku’s Kijishu: Volume 2 includes sketches of Korin Yatsuhashizu, and the figure pattern and color note in sketch specifies that the original art work was Tales of Ise Yatsuhashizu which currently belongs to Tokyo National Museum.
Since the Institute opened in 1930, it has collected and arranged materials concerning cultural heritage. We are making efforts to catalog them so they can be released to public and viewed; however, among the materials which we have accumulated over nearly 80 years, there are some materials which have not been released for public viewing and have not been arranged. Kijishu by Imaizumi Yusaku, introduced in this article, is one of the works which has been in obscurity for a long time. Mr. Imaizumi Yusaku (1850 – 1931) worked for the Education Ministry, Tokyo Fine Arts School (current Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music) and Tokyo National Museum, and sustained the art administration of modern Japan together with Okakura Tenshin. Kijishu is Imaizumi’s autobiographical diary collection, dated from 1887 to 1913 and totaling 38 volumes in all. In these diaries he recoded the art works he appraised and investigated in detail with his sketches. These diaries were found by Mr. Yoda Toru (Saitama City Culture Promotion Agency) who was a student at that time, during an arrangement of materials. The authenticity was confirmed by Ms. Yoshida Chizuru, a visiting researcher at our Institute, who already had records through her research of Imaizumi Yusaku. Ms. Yoshida is now writing a new work about Kijishu, and made an interim report at the workshop of Department of Research Programming on September 30. Imaizumi’s records of wide-ranging antiquities have attracted great interest of researchers majoring in various fields, and we have recognized the importance thereof.
2008 Annual Report of National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo
We have published the 2008 Annual Report of National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo. TheAnnual Report comprehensively describes what the Institute achieved in its activities last year. The contents include the organization of Institute, annual plans and project reports, other research activities, private research achievements, research exchanges, major stored materials, and Institute-related materials.
One copy of the Annual Report are distributed as reference material to each national and prefectural art gallery and museum, prefectural and government-designated city board of education, buried cultural property center, and university library that has a cultural property research department.
The Annual Report is also posted on our Website inPDF format.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
