| ■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 |
|
Exhibiting images on the second floor of Institute
With cooperation from the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, we conducted an optical survey on “Landscape with an Eye” pained in oil (1938, 102.0 x 193.5 cm) by Ai-Mitsu (1907-1948) on January 18. We took a full-color photographing and a reflection near-infrared photographing at that time. These two images are exhibited on the second floor of the Institute as an original-size panel. Following the above survey, we executed another survey using transmission near-infrared photographing on April 27. Taking the opportunity of the work’s restoration, we transmitted light from the back of the painting with the wooden frame removed. We were able to capture an image of the painting nearest to the canvas surface, i.e., an image of the work when it was created. This work is highly valued because of its unique expression in acceptance of Surrealism paintings in Japanese modern art. However, there are still ongoing discussions about how it was created and its motif. We must make a detailed investigation from now, using the images obtained by reflection and transmission near-infrared photographing. As long as we think of transmission near-infrared photo, we can recognize the depth of image that the painter had, and the traces that the painter left when he was trying to visualize the image as a real thing, in the form of a mysterious metamorphosis, which is different from an animal or a plant.
“SO-IMAGINE” Tobunken version browser screen
The Department of Research Programming is now preparing for the launch of the Tobunken version of the information search engine “SO-IMAGINE” using associative searching technology within this year.
“SO-IMAGINE” is a search service that the National Institute of Informatics has developed and it is open to the public. This completely new search engine allows us to designate the information you wish to know much more precisely from various genres of data sources, such as the library’s bibliotheca database, database of books in stock of bookstores and secondhand bookshops, database on cultural properties, encyclopedia and tourism data, and deepen the association based on the retrieved data.
The search services of “SO-IMAGINE” combined with the independent database of the organization, such as the National Museum of Art version and the Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum of Waseda University version, have already started operating. Similarly, the Tobunken version will be an independent search service by combining “SO-IMAGINE” with “Tobunken art-related documents”, “Tobunken Odaka Collection”, etc. We will make public the data on approximately 400,000 items on the “Tobunken art-related documents”, and approximately 2,000 photos on the “Tobunken Odaka Collection”, taken by Odaka Sennosuke who first surveyed Bamian, Afghanistan as a Japanese researcher.
We hope that very useful data for studying cultural properties will be transmitted.
The National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo is creating lists of artists and art galleries for survey research and data arrangement, and has started to release them to the public on the “Research Database Search System”( http://www.tobunken.go.jp/archives/）
as the database on artists/art-related persons and the database on art galleries. The former database contains the names of 19,947 persons and allows you to check details such as their pseudonyms, history of works on exhibitions and dates of death. The latter database includes 521 art galleries, and allows you to confirm the titles of the art gallery history, and whether there is any information on exhibitions.
Among the materials donated by artists, art-related persons, art galleries and the Contemporary Art Document Center superintended by Mr. Sasaki Shigeo, the Institute stores thin catalogs, art gallery news, DM, flyers and newspaper articles in the artist files and art gallery files separately. The database we are now releasing to the public displays only whether or not there are any material files, and we plan to release the items of material to the public in sequence. See “Using Data Files” for how to read the materials.
Digital Image Gallery of Cultural Properties
In April 2010, we added a Digital Image Gallery of Cultural Properties to the website pages of the Institute.
At present, the gallery includes the contents of “‘Talk on Ancient Romance’ viewed with infrared eyes”, “Incomplete picture of warriors hidden behind chrysanthemum blossoms”, and “Joint research on national treasure Hikone folding screens” – all in Japanese only.
With “‘Talk on Ancient Romance’ viewed with infrared eyes”, we made public the results of research on ‘Talk on Ancient Romance’ painted by Kuroda Seiki. This painting had been damaged in a fire during the air raids of 1945, but taking near-infrared photographs of it revealed some slight remains of the oil-painted ebauche.
With “Incomplete picture of warriors hidden behind chrysanthemum blossoms”, we received cooperation from the Pola Museum of Art and made public the research results of an optical survey on three Kuroda Seiki paintings – “Field (Nobe)”, “Chrysanthemum” and “Sieving red beans” owned by the Pola Museum.
With “Joint research on national treasure Hikone folding screens”, we introduced part of the results of a joint research investigation conducted by the Hikone Castle Museum and National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo, during 2006 and 2007, in which the Hikone folding screens were repaired.
The gallery plans to show “Old photographs of Nagoya Castle Keep Palace” and other articles.
Director Suzuki presenting a letter of gratitude to Ms. Kawashima Yoshiko.
The Muramatsu Gallery was a place where artists leading Japanese contemporary art had exhibited their works since 1960. This gallery closed in December 2009, and so Ms. Kawashima Yoshiko, a representative of the gallery, donated materials, such as an album which included documentary photos of its exhibitions, to our Institute. The Muramatsu Gallery opened around 1942 as a gallery of the Muramatsu clock shop which opened in Ginza in 1913, and was transferred to Ms. Kawashima in 1968. The materials acquired through the gallery’s 40 years of activities since 1968 are very precious, supplementing the materials of contemporary artists that we have collected, arranged and exhibited since before the war. Our Director gave her a certificate of gratitude on March 12. We will store the donated materials for ever, and make use of them and exhibit them.
While the Heisei Large Repair of the Phoenix Hall was being implemented from 2003 to 2008 at the Byodo-in Temple, the seated Amitabha Tathagata, along with the halo and pedestal, were transferred to a specially installed studio on the temple grounds. We took this opportunity to conduct a detailed optical survey of the painting in front of the wall behind the Buddha, with support and cooperation from Byodo-in Temple, in 2004 and 2005. We used high-definition digital camera techniques and recorded the current status of the painting in detail. As a report on the results, the “Phoenix Hall of Byodo-in Temple, the Wall Behind the Buddha Investigation Material List: Near-infrared Image Edition” was issued on February 26. This follows the issue of “Phoenix Hall of Byodo-in Temple, the Wall Behind the Buddha Investigation Material List: Color Image Edition” in 2009. As is well known, the panel painting on front of the Wall Behind the Buddha is usually behind the principal Buddha image, Amitabha Tathagata, so it is not easy to view the whole painting in detail. This edition, therefore, will prove very useful use not only for the study of the painting on the wall behind Buddha, but also for the study on Buddhist paintings during the Heian period. In 2011, we will issue the “Phoenix Hall of Byodo-in Temple, the Wall Behind the Buddha Investigation Material List: Fluoroscopic Image Edition.”
Front cover of “Capturing the ‘Original’: Conveying Cultural Properties”
Last year, the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo held the 32nd International Symposium on the Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Property, called “Capturing the ‘Original’: Archives for Cultural Properties.” After an editing period of a full year, we are now proud to publish a report on that symposium. It includes presentations and discussions by 26 national and international researchers, and explores how we should convey cultural properties while intending to maintain ‘original’ as it is. See the Department of Research Programming’s page for the titles of each publication.
http://www.tobunken.go.jp/~joho/japanese/publication/book/report_sympo32th.html
The contemporary artist Fukuda Miran created a mirror image of Hokusai’s famous “The Great Wave off Kanagawa,” which is part of his “Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji” series. Miran’s work is used as the front cover of the publication, and was also used as the public relations image of the symposium.
This publication is commercially available from Heibonsha under the title of “Capturing the ‘Original’: Conveying Cultural Properties.”
http://www.heibonsha.co.jp/catalogue/exec/frame.cgi?page=newbooks.html
Cover of “investigation report of joint research on pedestal for reading Kasuga Gongen Genki-e”
Mr. Shimizu Ken, a researcher at the Nara National Museum, is giving an explanation in front of the pedestal for reading Kasuga Gongen Genki-e in the Special Exhibition “On-Matsuri and the Sacred Art of Kasuga.”
The Department of Research Programming of the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo is conducting joint research with the Nara National Museum as part of the research project Survey Research on Applications of High-definition Digital Images. In March 2010, a report on a pedestal for reading Kasuga Gongen Genki-e (owned by Kasuga Taisha Shrine in Nara) was published. With the Kasuga Gongen Genki-e, the scene of the grounds of Kasuga Taisha Shrine is drawn on a folding screen with six panels that are approximately 42 cm in length, using gold and silver paints and gold and silver cut foils. This work has attracted attention because it is regarded as an old example of a paper folding screen and also as a precise example of a picture with gold and silver paints created in the fourteenth century. On the fluorescent image photographed this time in the joint research survey, patterns and detailed expressions that are not apparent to the naked eyes were confirmed. We hope that the fluorescent image will be an important research material in future studies on scenery images and pictures with gold and silver paints. When the Kasuga Gongen Genki-e was displayed in the Special Exhibition “On-Matsuri and the Sacred Art of Kasuga” from December 8, 2009 to January 17, 2010 before issuing the report, we exhibited the color image and fluorescent image photographed in this survey on panels to announce some of the results.
In February 2010, we created French webpages of Kuroda Memorial Hall:
http://www.tobunken.go.jp/kuroda/index_f.html.
The content of the French version is almost the same as that of the Japanese version, and includes the sections of “About Kuroda Seiki”, “Calendar and Traffic Access”, and “List of Works of Kuroda Seiki”. The French version is the fourth foreign language version after English, Chinese and Korean.
In 1884, Kuroda Seiki traveled to France to study law, but after two years he switched to painting and followed that pursuit for the rest of his life. He often stayed and did many paintings in the small village of Grez-sur-Loing between 1890 and 1893, until when he returned to Japan.
We hope that the people in France and other French-speaking countries will come to know that Kuroda Seiki, who is called the father of modern Japanese painting, had strong associations with France through the French webpages of Kuroda Memorial Hall.
Discussions
The Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures was established in Norwich, in the eastern part of the UK, in 1999. It is developing activities as a base for research on Japanese arts and cultures. The Institute’s Lisa Sainsbury Library stores books and materials on Japanese arts and cultures. Among them there are collections on the ceramic artist, Bernard Leach, and the art history researcher, Yanagisawa Taka. The Yanagisawa collection has strong ties with the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo, where she worked. On February 25, the Department of Research Programming of this Institute and the Art Documentation Society co-hosted the workshop “Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures and Archives of Cultural Heritages in the UK” in the seminar room of the Institute. Mr. Hirano Akira, a librarian at the Lisa Sainsbury Library, was invited to participate. Mr. Hirano introduced the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts, and reported on the study of Japan in the UK. He also discussed the network of Japanese studies in Europe. Mr. Morishita Masaaki (a visiting researcher from the Department of Research Programming of the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo) and Ms. Idemitsu Sachiko (a curator from the Idemitsu Museum of Arts), who have experience in conducting research based at the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, joined in the discussions as panelists. They developed topics on the real experience of researching Japanese art in overseas countries and the current status of the archives on contemporary art in Europe. The discussions with general participants revealed that it is difficult for people in overseas countries to view the bulletins, theses and exhibition catalogs at Japanese universities, art galleries and museums, and gave us another opportunity to understand the real issues with their computerization and international cooperation.
Text edition of 75 years’ of history of National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo
Editing is complete in 2006 for the issuing of a 75 years’ history of National Research Institute for Cultural Properties Tokyo, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the Institute in 1931.
We issued the “text edition” which records the development of the Institute, the investigation, research and current status of the Departments and Centers, along with relevant materials for each (B5 size, 607 pages, issued on December 25, 2009). In March 2008, we issued the “data edition” which includes lists of the records of operations since the foundation and the accumulated data. These data and text editions represent the 75-year history of our Institute.
The editors in the Departments and Centers played central roles in editing. In addition, we are very grateful for the cooperation received from many organizations and people from inside and outside the Institute.
We hope that this document is used to not only look back on the 75 year history of the Institute, but also to share pride in this history, and have an opportunity to open a new vision as one of our future Institute’s activity. Part of the document will be made commercially available by the Chuokoron Art Publishing Corporation.
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
