The Sumitomo Foundation



We were very pleased recently to welcome to the Restorient Studio, Dr Sumitomo and Mr Niiyama from The Sumitomo Foundation in Tokyo. Joining us from Dublin were Fionnuala Croke the Director of the Chester Beatty Library, Jessica Baldwin, Conservation Manager at the CBL and her colleague Rachel Sawicki. 

We very much appreciated this opportunity to explain the progress made to date and the various stages of conservation involved. There is still some way to go but work is on schedule for completion in Spring 2012.

Kusaki-zome

Firm even strokes in the same direction as the grain of the paper

Kusaki-zome is the long established tradition in Japan of using dyes from plants and other natural sources. The dye color can be affected by such factors as the plant variety, the timing of the plant cutting, the dyeing season, and the dyeing technique. 

Those especially useful in scroll mounting range from peach bark, gardenia pods, kihada bark for yellows. The latter was also a recognised deterrent for insects and so often important documents would be treated with the yellow kihada dye. The dye which is the most commonly used in scroll mounting is made from boiling Alder cones (yasha) in water. This produces wonderfully warm shades of brown and is especially suitable for dyeing papers which will harmonise with older antique papers when used for repair or linings. The paper which was prepared using the alder cone dye for the first linings of the hand scrolls was a fine mulberry fibered paper called Mino-gami.

The sheets were dried on felts after dyeing. They were then washed in cold water before being rinsed in a weak lye solution to fix the colour. One further rinse, dried again and then they were ready for use. 

Order...

The 'Tale of the Bamboo Cutter' is a very convoluted story and in part details the obscure and difficult tasks set by the Princess Kaguya-hime for her five suitors to prove their worth. Pictured is the retainer Ono no Fusamori who has supplied a fake robe of Fire Rat fur to the The Minster of the Right, Abe no Miushi, the third suitor, (unfortunately when tested the robe burned when it should have been fire-resistant !).

However a number of sources have indicated that there were sections of text and paintings which were incorrectly placed in the last restoration of the handscrolls. The task of the second suitor was to find the stone begging-bowl of the Buddha. This image had been placed prior to the scene of the five suitors of the Princess Kagua- hime when they were allocated their individual tasks.

We wanted to take this opportunity during the conservation to correct these anomalies and are fortunate in being directed by Dr Masako Watanabe, Senior Researcher at the Metropolitan Museum, New York. We are very grateful for her guidance and are looking forward to being able to place the story in the correct sequence . 

Scoop !

There will be a number of different Japanese handmade papers used in the conservation of "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter". The first linings are a handmade Mino type paper. This term used to mean a paper made in the  province of Mino, Gifu Prefecture but it has now become more of a general term for a high quality, thin, mulbery fibred paper. The best papers are made in winter when the pure cold water keeps the fibres tight and compact during sheet formation. It is labour intensive, hard physical work. 

We thought we should include this video link as it seemed a concise way of explaining how this remarkable paper is made. In future blogs we will explain why an understanding of how this paper is made relates to its use in conservation. 

Truss

Increasingly scholars are turning to pictorial evidence which often quite literally illustrates a wide variety of subjects. A couple of years ago we were approached by a scholar of envelope and letterfolds who was trying to identify from Japanese paintings and prints some of the traditional folds used for letters in Japan. Fortunatley courtesans clearly received a lot of mail so there are many different examples especially in Japanese woodblock prints.



The Bamboo Cutter delivers a folded message to Kaguyahime

A recent visitor to the studio was Dr Mari Akazawa from the National Institute of Japanese Literature. Her interest in the 'Tale of the Bamboo Cutter' was not confined to pure art history, it was also the architecture of the various buildings within the scrolls. She is studying a wide variety of sources to see what information can be gathered from the historic depiction of buildings. These are often incredibly detailed and can lend fascinating insights into the construction of buildings over the centuries.

So, whilst we continue the conservation, every beam, joint and roof truss in the scrolls will be closely examined to see if they can offer any further insights into the construction of Japanese buildings.

Virus!

As the removal of previous lining papers continues on the hand scrolls we should mention what is happening all around the area. Leiden is on the edge of the famous Dutch bulb fields and this time of year the fields are crammed with tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths. The roads are also packed with visitors...........

The Semper Augustus tulip

The popularity  of tulips in the early 17th century caught the attention of the entire nation "even to its lowest dregs". By 1635, a sale of 40 bulbs for 100,000 florins (also known as Dutch guilders) was recorded. By way of comparison, a ton of butter cost around 100 florins, a skilled laborer might earn 150 florins a year, and "eight fat swine" cost 240 florins. People were selling or trading their other possessions in order to speculate in the tulip market, such as an offer of 12 acres (49,000 metres square) of land for one of two existing Semper Augustus bulbs. Unfortunately the extraordinary beauty of Semper Augustus is the result of a viral infection which 'breaks' the single block of colour normally displayed on tulips, adding a stunning striation of white or yellow coloured strips. The virus would make it difficult to  propagate. Eventually the bulb would lose its strength and eventually wither to nothing - ending the genetic line. Consequently the famous, colour broken Semper August bulb no longer exists.

As is the nature of all bubbles this one did indeed burst leaving a badly bruised economy and some very overpriced tulip bulbs.