Hello Goodbye

Today is Queens day in the Netherlands and it is being celebrated with even more enthusiasm than ever. The reason for this is that Queen Beatrix has abdicated and the investiture of Prince Willem to King takes place today. The Dutch Royal Family are immensely popular and the whole country will be following this historic event.

Somewhere amongst the invited dignitaries there is Prince Charles from England - clearly hoping that this whole abdication thing might not go unnoticed back home.......... 

Uchigumo

Uchigumo as part of a scroll mount

Deep in the mountains of Echizen, Fukui Prefecture, Japan, there is a paper-maker who still makes by hand a remarkable paper, the origins of which are over a thousand years old. Iwano Heizaburo is still making uchigumo - Cloud patterened paper. The oldest existing piece of uchigumo paper is part of an anthology, Hōraikiri said to have been copied out during the Tengi era (1053-1058).

To make this decorative paper, a thin gampi paper is first dyed with indigo and then re-beaten into a pulp. Cloud-like shapes of this blue pulp are then applied to a wet sheet of torinoko paper so that they appear as though they are floating along the length of the top and bottom of the sheet. Originally uchigumo was made with only indigo but later papers with indigo-dyed clouds at the top and purple dyed clouds at the bottom became more popular.

 

Iwano-san in his workshop

Uchigumo

We have now asked Iwano-san if he could make us some uchigumo which we hope to use as the inner lining of the cover silks for the  Shuten Dōji hand scrolls.

Daikan -The Great Cold

...... ready in 2023

For us here at Restorient like the other traditional Japanese scroll mounting studios around the world, the coldest part of the year has a very special significance. 

It is during "The Great Cold" (daikan)
that we are all busy making large jars of Japanese gluten-free wheat starch paste. These will be stored in a cool even climate, often in cellars or basements to mature over a period of ten years to produce aged paste (furunori). During this time the jars are checked annually and the covering of water replenished. 

The paste as it ages undergoes retrogradation and becomes softer and more flexible during this time. It is used in conjunction with the Japanese pounding brush (uchibake) and is integral for the assembly of soft flexible scrolls. 

It does put the cliche "here is one we prepared earlier"  into sharp perspective as we are currently using a 2002 aged paste to apply layers of soft misu-gami paper to sections of the "Ogres" hand scroll.

As we leave the Daikan and move into February the old Japanese kanji for which is Kisaragi which helpfully translates as "wear more clothes" we should remind ourselves that however cold it is - it's never too cold for Haiku....!

coldest day of the year -
the moon lifts the tide
to overflowing

Hoshika Katsumi aged 75

Divine

As we work with the scrolls it is very clear that although the Samurai hunting the Ogres are at the top of their game, they cannot succeed without divine support. They are repeatedly shown holding Buddhist rosaries to ensure their safety, and consult various priests and sages as to their best plan of attack.

A detail of rosaries on scroll

A selection of rosaries, Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto.

 

Studio rosary and Ibota wax

Here in the studio we also use some glass Buddhist  rosaries. These are used to burnish the final  linings on the back of scrolls which not only polishes the paper but also increases the suppleness of the finished scroll.

These are traditionally used in conjunction with  a very light coating of ibota wax - made from the secretion of an insect that infests the ibota (privet) plant. The same wax is used to protect Japanese swords and is also used to reduce friction when playing old '78s with fibre needles !

Festive ?

It seems somehow appropriate (and very festive) that as we wait for the deer skin size consolidant to harden on the friable pigment (also see "Lucky''  blog from August 2010) that reindeer are everywhere........

All the pigments have been tested for sensitivity to water and where pigments seemed unstable a dilute solution was very carefully applied. It was warmed before use to decrease the viscosity and to aid penetration into the pigment layer. This has now to be left to harden naturally before being tested again to see if further applications are necessary. The layers of backing papers can then be safely removed. This is necessary as we need to support the deep rolling creases which have developed over the many years of handling by enthusiastic Ogre hunters.

We still prefer the traditional techniques as they work so well and have proved to be very effective over many hundreds of years. There have been various modern synthetic chemicals tried for consolidation and although ruthlessly efficient these have often proved to discolour over time. They are also impossible to remove. So, deer skin size (nikawa) it is......

This Christmas show someone you really care .....with the gift of a handcrafted lacquer fountain pen featuring our favorite Ogre - Shoten Doji !!!





















It might prove though to be a stern test of your affections as  they are currently $22,000  !!!!!

Finally, Restorient would like to wish all the followers of this blog Seasons Greetings and our very best for 2013. 

Meet the Ogres!

The  Ogre-in-Chief we are hunting is Shuten Doji who can assume human form at will, is partial to human flesh and especially fond of sake....... He is the sixth devil of the 'World of Desires' and sometimes known as 'The Drunken Devil' It does seem curious that the artist chose to make the worst demon of all an overweight long haired blond?

The story is so old and well known that there have been numerous attempts to portray this particular ogre. Throughout the project we will be investigating how he has appeared elsewhere to compare this portrayal with  other paintings and prints.

Such is the  notoriety of Shoten Doji that just his demonic arm also features in this charming Japanese crepe paper book (These books are called chirimenbon and will be featured in a later blog) 

http://www.archive.org/stream/japanesefairytalse01no18thom