Taito City Culture Guide Book, Relaxing at the Tokyo National Museum

In the basement of Honkan, there is a rigorous world of the preservation and restoration.

Nobuyuki Kanba, a chief of the conservation division at the Tokyo National Museum

Nobuyuki Kanba, a chief of the conservation division at the Tokyo National Museum, guided us around the museum.

Basement of Honkan / Repair Room

Kanba: There are a variety of divisions in the basement of Honkan. The conservation division is also located in the basement, and the majority of repair rooms are in the basement. The repair room I will show you from now is a room where art works, including paintings and writings, in Japan and Asia are restored. Art works are restored using the traditional technique called "Soko." A person on this side is Mr. Suzuki who has a restoration career that spans 20 years. A person behind him is Ms. Okimoto who has 8 years of restoration career. They are now restoring writings and paintings (two mandalas representing "Taizo-kai," or womb world, and "Kongo-kai," or diamond world), which are owned by this museum.

Suzuki: This is"Kana Shosoku Dankan." or fragment of a letter, which was pasted on "Tekagami," or album of calligraphic masterpieces. A letter is written on the face of the paper, and characters of Hoke-kyo sutra can be seen through the paper. This kind of paper is pasted on Tekagami. In order to peel off the paper and exhibit it as a form of a hanging scroll, I am restoring it. I just start the work, and am now checking its condition and structure. I first thought that it has a three-layered backing, but it is not, so I am trying to find out the structure from the back. The sutra's characters seem to be the standard form when seeing them from this side. A letter is written on the back of the paper on which the sutra is written. The writing paper is arranged in a slightly strange way, so the restoration work should be done while re-checking the structure. When I check the wormholes, it turns out that the positions are shifted. Since the wormholes' positions do not have symmetry, it turns out that the paper was originally folded.

Kanba: As being explained by him, we are just giving a thought to the significant damage caused by worms, a possibility that it was moved from the original location, and the fact that it was written on the back of the paper on which the sutra is written. (continued in the right column)

It is in the process of a preliminary study of the past restoration methods, its structure and the gluing condition, while looking at the inner structure and considering how it should be treated from now. We estimate that the restoration of this work will take about 100 days. It will take a year to complete the whole restoration process. This is the "Taizo-kai" mandala, one of the two mandalas, of which restoration has just started. She is trying to remove the ornamental cloth pasted around the picture, and separate the picture from the cloth.

Okimoto: This is a photograph of the mandala, which was taken before the restoration. It is decided that the main section, which was originally framed, will be mounted on a hanging scroll. Following an investigation such as X-ray photography, an anti-peeling treatment was just completed. It is now in the process of removing the surrounding cloth called "Fuchinuno." After this process, cleaning, application of facing and backing will be conducted. It is estimated to take a year to complete the whole process.

Kanba: Although the mandala was originally framed, it will be mounted on a hanging scroll. The restoration of the "Kongo-kai" mandala, the counterpart, was completed last year. After the restoration, it turns out that it was framed in relatively-recent times. Also, the natural silk (main section) itself has many horizontal wrinkles. Horizontal wrinkles are usually formed if it has been stored in a state of a scroll for a long time.

Therefore, I think the two mandalas had been in a state of a hanging scroll for a long time, and were remade into the framed work in relatively-recent years, that is to say, around the Meiji Period. A framed picture seems to be safe because it does not damage the picture by rolling and unrolling it. However, a framed picture is always exposed to air and light, so it is relatively vulnerable to damage. Considering that the form of a hanging scroll, of which technique has been developed in Japan, can shut off much of air and light, we decided to restore it to a hanging scroll. (continued in the lower left column)

Haruhiko Suzuki, staff of the conservation division


Investigating the paper condition by looking through it in the light		Akiko Okimoto at work

"Kana Shosoku Dankan." or fragment of a letter

Disassembling the mandala

Q: Will other processes, such as repair of color degradation, be carried out at this time?

Kanba: I think the appearance of this work will be gradually changed from now. We will remove stains on the surface by transferring the stains to absorbent paper beneath little by little while giving moisture to the whole picture. By doing so, the stains on the surface will be gradually removed, and the colors will be seen more vividly. I think the faded colors will be significantly restored by cleaning the picture not by adding new pigments.

Q: Are you using a special lighting? Is this white light used to light up the top of the table?

Kanba: It depends on a type of tasks. The task Mr. Suzuki is now doing needs light emanating from below and the side so that fibers of the paper and its texture can be seen clearly when being moistened. The task is carried out while changing the direction of the light and looking at the detailed texture of the paper If the light is directly overhead, it is difficult to see the texture. The highly directional light, with which unevenness on the surface can be easily seen, is used. If a fluorescent light is used, the beam of light is diffused. (continued in the right column)

Kanba: They are now conducting thorough restoration works, but temporary repairs are also carried out in this room. If we call it "temporary repair," it sounds like a thorough restoration waits after that, so we call it "symptomatic treatment" or "symptomatic repair." When some damage appears, partial repairs are applied according to the degree of the damage. Many of this kind of repairs, other than a thorough restoration, have been carried out. Although both of them are now carried out thorough restorations, they have not worked on them daily. They have quickly repaired a variety of works, including a hanging scroll, picture book, folded book, painting, book and Ukiyo-e, as well as slightly damaged materials. The important thing is to quickly repair damage according to the conditions. If a piece of work is left without repairing it, thinking that the repair can be conducted in the future, the damage gets gradually worse. So, the purpose of carrying out "symptomatic repair" is to quickly repair it as soon as possible, and avoids a thorough restoration.