Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties - Publications
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Study of the Use of Aobanagami in Yuzenzome
Get PDFAobanagami is Japanese paper containing blue pigment (commelinin) obtained from the petals of a plant known as aobana (Commelina communis var. hortensis) and used in making under drawing for yuzenzome and paint for ukiyoe and the like. The Department of Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties conducted a joint project with Kusatsu City, Shiga Prefecture to document techniques for manufacturing aobanagamai for 2 years since 2016. In this project, focus was placed on how aobanagami and its substitute material, synthetic aobana, have been used, collecting and arranging information from contemporary dye artists and workmen. The results of the project will be made public in a report in 2018.
In the present study, a different viewpoint is taken from that of the report mentioned above and focus is laid on aobanagami as material for under drawing in yuzenzome . Literature was studied and arranged to verify the relationship between yuzenzome and aobanagami.
As a result it was found that aobanagami had already been used before the 1860s at which time the techniques of yuzen were established. It was also confirmed by literature that aobanagami had been used as a dye material in the late 17th century. In the late 18th century, the use of aobanagami for under drawing was recorded so that it may be considered that aobanagami had established itself as a dye material by then.
In addition, an examination of the materials used for under drawing in the process of yuzenzome clarified the fact that the combination of aobanagami and rice paste was effective. To dye white fabric into many colors, it is important to combine materials such as aobanagami, paste, and bean milk. Thus, it may be considered that these materials found in dye studios from the 1680s to the 1690s served in the development of the techniques of yuzenzome.departmental bulletin pape
Dream Journey to the Peach Blossom Land: The Reappearance of Paradise and the Establishment of Classical Landscape Paintings
Get PDFDream Journey to the Peach Blossom Land（夢遊桃源図） was based on a dream that I-Yong, the third son of King Sejong known as the royal prince An-Pyeong（安平大君, 1418-53）, had on the 20th day of the 4th lunar month of 1447. His dream of the Peach Blossom Land was called ‘Dowonmong（桃源夢）’ and came to be remembered forever in the history of Joseon dynasty calligraphy and literature. After having the dream, the royal prince An-Pyeong encouraged the famous court painter, An-Gyeon（安堅）to depict the dream and record its contents（記文）. He also allowed contemporary celebrities to write and recite some laudable prefaces and poems, known as jechan（題賛）in Korean, about the dream. Thus the most enchanted garden of the mythical realms, the Peach Blossom Land（桃源郷）, was depicted and heralded by the greatest writers and painters of the King Sejong era, recognized as the golden age of early Joseon culture. This process reflected the great codification of court literature（gwan-gak literature, 館閣文芸）.
This paper presents my comprehensive examination of the theme and the resulting art and literary works that constituted the creative world of Dream Journey to the Peach Blossom Land. I worked from the basis of existing artistic and literary research and added the following aspects to my study: the entire production process and history of the Dream Journey to the Peach Blossom Land handscroll（夢遊桃源図巻軸）; the process by which the painting was transferred to large-scale format; when it was taken from Korea to Japan, and how it came to be seen as a modern “artifact.”
The pictorialization of the Dream Journey to the Peach Blossom Land focused on glorifying royal prince An-Pyeong’s dream and likening it to a holy pilgrimage to India. In the dream the royal prince An-Pyeong journeyed to the Peach Blossom Land, a place no one had visited in the millennium since the fisherman stumbled upon it. Stylistically, Dream Journey to the Peach Blossom Land was a mixture of styles assembled by An-Gyeon within the traditional context of late Goryeo painting, including the Li-kuo School（李郭派）and the Won Dynasty’s previous Zhe School（前浙派）. These styles pursued eclecticism and formalism on the basis of the Northern Song dynasty classical “ideal landscape” style of Li Cheng（李成）and Kuo Xi（郭熙）, as well as the Buddhist painting styles that developed from those schools.
Through his fusion of these styles and creative additions, An-Gyeon began and established a new traditional Joseonstyle landscape painting. His Joseon style representation of this mythical land occurred at the end of the Goryeo dynasty and beginning of the Joseon dynasty, just as landscape painting ideology and aesthetics were gaining popularity as pleasure pursuits. His influence continued long after, just as royal prince An-Pyeong had hoped, through a school of followers that a King Injo era civil minister I-Sik（李植, 1584-1647）designated the An-Gyeon school（安可度輩）.journal articl
Materials for Art Research: The Friendship between Lian Quan and Ômura Seigai: As Seen in Lian Quan’s Letters to Ômura Seigai and his Nanhu’s Japan Travel Journal
Get PDFThis article provides a detailed consideration of the friendship in the 1910s and 1920s between Ômura Seigai（大村西崖）, a Japanese specialist in Chinese art history, and Lian Quan（廉泉）, a Chinese painting and calligraphy collector, using as primary sources the letters that Lian Quan wrote to Ômura and his Nanhu’s Japan Travel Journal（南湖東遊日記）.
Lian Quan (1863-1931) was a late Qing-Republic of China period poet and collector of painting and calligraphy from Wuxi. He also operated a publishing company in Shanghai and is renowned in Chinese publishing history for being an early adopter of collotype printing in China. His massive collection of Chinese painting and calligraphy was known as the Xiaowanliutang（小萬柳堂）Collection.
Lian Quan first visited Japan in 1914 to participate in the Tokyo Taishô Exhibition, and in the end visited Japan a total of six times, staying for a longer time each visit. During his time in Japan he held exhibitions of his own collection, published books on objects in his collection and deepened his friendships with major figures in various fields. Ômura Seigai (1868-1927), a Chinese art historian who was a professor at Tokyo Bijutsu Gakkô（ 東京美術学校）, was the one Japanese acquaintance that Lian most trusted, and indeed, entrusted with selling his collection in Japan. Not only did Ômura work hard on the exhibition of the Xiaowanliutang Collection held at Tokyo Bijutsu Gakkô and the Shômanryûdo gekiseki（小萬柳堂劇蹟）published immediately after the exhibition, he also actively helped sell Lian Quan's collection in Japan. On the other hand, Lian Quan, deeply knowledgeable about Chinese painting and calligraphy and well versed in the state of affairs of the Chinese publishing world, highly praised Ômura’s research on Chinese art, introduced those findings in China, and unstintingly cooperated with Ômura’s research. Ômura’s Shina kaiga shôshi（支那絵画小史）is known as the first systematic history of Chinese painting history, and it was thanks to Lian’s efforts that a Chinese translation of the book was published. Lian provided materials for Ômura’s major work, Shina bijutsushi chôsohen（支那美術史彫塑篇） , and the great results that Ômura produced from his research trip to Shanghai in 1921 were thanks to the wholehearted support provided by Lian.
The clarification of these various facts provides a vivid image of Lian Quan as a philosophical and deeply humanist person and as a collector with a strong sense of mission, factors that have not been much discussed in earlier studies.
His stance regarding the importance of positioning artworks within the flow of history was shared by the art historian Ômura. The deep connection formed by the two men can be said to have been based on their mutual love for Chinese painting and calligraphy, a passion that surpassed modern national boundaries and had been conveyed over the long course of history in both Japan and China. The friendship between these two men not only shows the ideal relationship
between collector and art historian, it also indicates the importance of Lian and the multifaceted roles he played in the early period of Chinese art history research.journal articl
The History of the Restoration of Tumuli Damaged by Disasters: From the Viewpoint of Conservation Science
Get PDFMany tumuli were damaged by the Kumamoto Earthquake in April 2016, and their prompt restoration is required. When considering how to restore cultural properties, it is necessary to understand the previous restorations of the same cultural property. Therefore, in the present paper, an attempt was made to compile precedents of the restoration of tumuli damaged by natural disasters.As a result,few tumuli could be pointed out that were restored just after damage by past earthquakes, quite different from the cases of other cultural properties. However, there were not a few tumuli that were restored as historic sites for present people after damage by recent natural disasters.Because there are some tumuli severely damaged by earthquakes due to previous mound alteration,stabilization of altered tumuli may be argued from the viewpoint of future disaster prevention.Historically speaking, natural disasters do not seem to have always given negative influence on the conservation environment of tumuli because cases can be pointed out that the result of earthquakes eventually contributed to keep the relics or decorations of tumuli quite well. When restoring tumuli damaged by natural disasters, it is required not to insist that the damaged tumuli need prompt rescue but to evaluate the damages objectively and prudently to make the condition of the tumuli better in total.journal articl
Research on Components of Modern Lacquerware Made in Myanmar
Get PDFLacquer is obtained from plants of the family Anacardiaceae, which grow in East Asia and Southeast Asia. Lacquer has been used in daily commodities, buildings and ritual utensils as painting material, and traditional process of manufacture has developed in each region. On the other hand, synthesized paints and pigments have appeared recently and are often used in lacquerware employing methods other than that verified to be traditional. A workshop on restoration of lacquerware was held in Myanmar, but it was not possible to hold a thorough discussion because the nature of lacquer and the manufacture of lacquerware in Myanmar, whether with traditional method or not, was not known well.
From the above background, research on components of modern lacquerware made in Myanmar was conducted while comparing with literature. Samples A-D bought in Myanmar, which seemed to be lacquerware, were analyzed with cross section, X-ray fluorescence(XRF),Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR)and pyrolysis gas chromatography mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS). As a result, it was found that all samples were coated with lacquer that seemed to have been obtained in Myanmar and decorated with color pigments in the etched surfaces. The color pigments used and the substrates differed according to the price of the samples. Sample D, which was the most expensive of the four samples, was decorated with color pigments made from cinnabar mercury and orpiment. It was likely that sample D was made by traditional method. However, the color pigments used on samples A-C were synthetic and the method by which they were made was modern. This study showed modern lacquerware made in Myanmar is still coated with genuine lacquer, while not always using with traditional color pigments.journal articl
The Impact of W et Conservation Treatments on Paper Artworks with Gel of Gellan Gum
Get PDFIn paper artworks conservation, wet cleaning treatments are usually performed to remove substances other than the original one and to release the adhesive substances for reattach treatment. For this it is important and technical to adjust and control the degree of wetness of the paper. Especially in the case of treatment for damaged paper, the risks of historical artifact being damaged by water and the historically important information being lost increase. The rigid hydrogels of gellan gum, which is a natural polysachalide, can be effectively used to minimize such impact of water on paper. The present study evaluates the analytical study of residues and impact through accelerated ageing on paper samples after wet treatment by means of gellan gum application.
The residues of wet treatment by gel of gellan gum, which are potassium, calcium, and acetic acid ions, could be detected from Whatman paper. The pH of both Whatman paper and kozo paper treated with gel tends to be a little higher than that of paper with direct wet treatment. However, when the gel is washed with ultrapure water before gel wet treatment, the residue derived from gellan gum gel is dramatically reduced or not detected. Moreover, pH of the paper treated with washed gel shows almost the same value as paper treated with direct wet treatment as control. It is revealed that washing gel of gellan gum before using it for wet treatment of paper is effective because it does not leave residue derived from the gel. Some kinds of paper samples treated with non-washed gel are influenced in the value of pH, discoloration, and physical strength after hygrothermal ageing. However, when the paper samples are first treated with washed gel their physical characteristics change in the same way as the paper treated with direct water as a control. That is, washing gel is effective in avoiding the negative influence on paper after gel wet treatment.journal articl