Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties - Publications
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Molecular Phylogenetic Placements of Bacillus and Ochrobactrum Isolated from the Takamatsuzuka and Kitora Tumuli
Get PDFMolecular phylogenetic placements of the three major bacterial taxa, i.e., Bacillus cereus group (28 isolates), Bacillus simplex group (36 isolates), and Ochrobactrum spp. (17 isolates), isolated from various samples collected from the stone chamber interior or exterior environment of Takamatsuzuka Tumulus and Kitora Tumulus were conducted based on the sequences of housekeeping genes (i.e.,gyrB for 17 Bacillus isolates,and gyrB and groEL for 3 Ochrobactrum isolates)in addition to 16S rRNA gene sequences (for all 64 Bacillus and 17 Ochrobactrum isolates). Molecular phylogenetic analyses revealed that almost all isolates belonging to both genera Bacillus and Ochrobactrum were assignable to known species (i.e., Bacillus butanolivorans, B. cereus, B. pseudomycoides, B. simplex, B. thuringiensis, B. toyoensis, and Ochrobactrum pituitosum), and it was possible to infer whether these isolates were pathogenic or not. On the other hand, for the remaining Bacillus and Ochrobactrum isolates, which were not identified as known species, further study is necessary to identify accurately whether these are assignable to novel taxa or not.journal articl
Case Study on the Reduction of Molds in a Closed Stack
Get PDFLibraries in Japan are not air conditioned for 24 hours due to various reasons. However, because of such reasons as the demand for saving energy after the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 and abnormally hot summer and cold winter,mold growth has
increased in libraries.The collection of the Institute’s library is based on the collection of publications for the study of art history.It consists of books and manuscripts dating from before the Edo period as well as books and exhibition catalogs and periodicals from the Meiji era. About 180,000 volumes of books and approximately 120,000 periodicals are available. The present report describes the collaborative work of researchers/librarians/conservators in the archive section and conservation scientists,both of the Institute,hoping that it will provide useful information for libraries troubled by molds.
By examining the structural characteristics of the library,such as air conditioning and its constraints from the measurement of temperature and humidity data,it was found that the cause of mold growth,temperature and humidity,could not be controlled from June to September every year. As a countermeasure, thorough cleaning was first carried out to remove molds.Next,as a measure against the inflow of outside air,the doors of each room were closed, and air circulation was improved by installing blowers. By creating a closed space and operating dehumidifiers so that the absolute humidity does not exceed 10 kg/kg, the archive environment improved. The criteria for checking the propagation of fungi by ATP＋AMP wiping inspection for books were also tested.For the first time in the world, ultraviolet fluorescent photographs of a mold breeding area were taken by using ultraviolet
rays close to visible light so as not to damage materials. In conclusion,it is important for library staff to monitor temperature and humidity for any abnormal change, especially in humidity variation.journal articl
Dissemination of Images via Web-based Database: Sen’nosuke Odaka’s Photo Records on His Field Study as an Example
Get PDFWeb-based databases that enable one to use data without specialized software are effective for utilizing and disseminating academic information. Such databases, however, in general cost much to assemble,and their interactive characteristics can cause vulnerability of the networking system.For these reasons,the Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties had not had open web-based databases except the searching system of its library.
In these circumstances, in 2012 the authors started construction of a web-based database of the photo records of the field trip of Sen’nosuke Odaka (1901-1933),who was one of the staff of the Institute of Fine Arts (predecessor of the present Institute)since its establishment in 1930.Odaka made a field trip in Southeast Asia, India and South Asia in 1931-1932, and left approximately 2,000 photos as well as detailed written records during the trip.
WordPress, one of the content management systems (CMS) that is widely used for blogs, was chosen to construct the web-based database. As WordPress is a free, opensource system, variety of working environments and plug-ins are prepared by many
programmers all over the world. Taking the most of such advantages, the authors constructed the web-based database and then revised it by referring to opinions inside and outside the Institute, before and even after the database’s full-scale operation in 2014. As for the attributes of the data,the authors added information on the administrative divisions of the places where the photos were taken because the names or notations of the places are often different from the present ones.In doing so,users can search the photos by the recent place names.
WordPress enabled the authors to construct the web-based database of the photo records of Sen’nosuke Odaka’s field trip at low-cost, but with high flexibility.WordPressis also effective for showing how the database works as it runs on different operating
systems.Such characteristics of WordPress make it possible to collect opinions of experts inside and outside the Institute. Beginning with this Odaka’s database,now the Institute has 16 databases running on WordPress, and these databases can be cross-searched.journal articl
Exhibition Review: Viewing the Kakutei on Exhibition
Get PDFThe Nagasaki-born Ôbaku priest Kakutei (1722-1785) was both a Buddhist priest and a painting student of Kumashiro Yûhi (1712 -1772), the sole Japanese student of the Chinese painter who visited Japan, Shen Nanpin (Shen Quan, 1682 - ?). Kakutei is credited with having spread the Nanpin style of bird and flower painting from Nagasaki to Osaka, Kyoto and other locales, and hence is considered an important painter of the day. And yet, today his name is little known and he is considered to be a relatively minor painter. Thus it is extremely fortuitous that an exhibition focusing on Kakutei was held at the Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture (February 6 – March 27, 2016) and the Kobe City Museum (April 9 – May 29, 2016).
This long-awaited exhibition focused on pieces from these two museums, which have long acquired works by Kakutei as a painter active in their regions, and was based on the detailed and fundamental research by Narusawa Katsushi and Ishizawa Shun. The exhibition on this painter, dubbed a minor painter, demonstrated some degree of completeness. However, the various elements that formed the exhibition were not solely scholarly in nature, but rather were kept simple and quite easily understandable by the general viewer. Indeed, this factor was the most fascinating aspect of this exhibition and its true strength.
In particular, each of the flowers and birds painted by Kakutei has a different meaning based on how their names are pronounced in Chinese, and how they were depicted in Chinese painting history. The exhibition’s explanatory captions and large-scale panels were superb in their easily understood explanations of the meanings included with each bird and flower, allowing viewers to interpret the messages contained in Kakutei’s paintings. Kakutei was also involved with the various painters and literati of the day and thus involved in various influence relationships. This exhibition further clarified how these interactions contributed to his painting expression and message.
There seems to have been less consideration given to the changes in Kakutei’s painting style and stylistic analysis, investigation of which actual Chinese paintings Kakutei was able to study, or detailed debate about his connection with haikai poetry. These somewhat unfortunate lacunae must await further exhibitions and research on the painter. In addition, the display of works was striking for its negligent handling of scroll mountings and other elements.
The exhibition catalogue contents were very accessible to a wide audience and function as basic research materials, however problems were found in the catalogue’s photographs of the signature and seal portions of each work, such as the fact that the seal sections were not reproduced for all works displayed.
This first exhibition bearing the name of Kakutei can be considered to have formed the basis for future research and advanced research in general on 18th century Edo period painting.journal articl
Research on Kishida Ryûsei – Focusing on his Recuperation in “Komazawa-mura Shinmachi”
Get PDFIntroduction
This article focuses on the period spanning July 1916 through February 1917 when Kishida Ryûsei convalesced in “Komazawa-mura Shinmachi”, a time not previously considered in studies of Ryûsei’s arts overall. Previous studies have divided his life and oeuvre into specific periods based on his place of residence, such as his Yoyogi period, Kugenuma period and Kyoto period. Within such a structure, the time in “Komazawa-mura Shinmachi” was a brief period of only seven months spent recuperating after his lung disease diagnosis. Given the brevity of this period, it is often discussed as part of one of the preceding or following periods, namely his Yoyogi period (Oct. 1913 – July 1916) or his Kugenuma period (Feb. 1917 – Sept. 1923). In this article I will argue that this period should be reconsidered. Given that in spite of its brevity and the fact that he was recuperating, this period can be considered a turning point in his arts, a time when he produced richly creative works such as his Portrait of Yoshio Koya (Portrait of a Man Holding a Plant) and An Apple Exists on Top of a Pot (both, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo). The turning point refers to Ryûsei’s realization of a new direction, a questioning of modern painting, i. e. the Impressionists, after seeing reproductions of works by Albrecht Dürer and others. The three sections in this article consider the questions, why, what and how did he paint during this period.
1. The Place – Komazawa-mura Shinmachi
In July 1916, after a succession of low fevers, Ryûsei was diagnosed with lung disease. As a result he moved to a place with good air quality for recuperation. Both Ryûsei at the time, as well as the memoirs of his daughter Kishida Reiko, record the recuperation location as Komazawa-mura Shinmachi. Further investigation, however, indicates that it was actually Tamagawa-mura. Existing Ryûsei studies have included two different theories regarding the records of his residence during this period, and this new information on Tamagawa-mura will surely prove an impetus for further study on this matter.
2. Ryûsei’s Reception of Dürer and the Koya Portrait
Previous surveys have indicated that during this Komazawa-mura Shinmachi recuperation period, Ryûsei
produced six oil paintings and 17 drawings and watercolors. The following are the six oil paintings (the dates provided under each title are the production dates recorded by Ryûsei).
1. Portrait of Yoshio Koya (Portrait of a Man Holding a Plant)
Sept. 10, 1916 (color pl. II).
2. Two Apples (whereabouts unknown)
Sept. 26, 1916
3. An Apple Exists on Top of a Pot
Nov. 3, 1916 (color pl. IV)
4. Hand
Nov. 10, 1916 (fig. 5)
5. Three Apples (lost in fire)
6. Three Apples
Feb. 1917 (fig. 6)
This article focuses on the Koya portrait as it explores its production process, and Ryûsei’s reception of Dürer and Jan van Eyck as seen in the work.
We might ask, what kinds of reproduction prints of Dürer works did Ryûsei see during this period. This is a critical point in terms of the question of reception. I considered the high quality picture compendium published by Maekawa Seiro (1920–2010), a Japanese art historian and specialist on Dürer. There was also Ryûsei’s friend, the painter, translator and critic Kimura Shohachi (1893–1958) who published Dürer picture compendia and a critical biography. It is also known that Kimura had imported English language books on Dürer. I then posited that Ryûsei might have had the following four volumes at hand during this period from among those Dürer picture compendia referred to by Maekawa and Kimura.
1) N. Knackfuss, Dürer – Künstler Monographien, nr. 5, Derlag von Delhagen & Klafing, Bielefeld und Leipzig, 1900, 26 × 18 cm, 144 pp.
2) Lina Eckenstein, Albrecht Dürer, Popular Library of Art, Duckworth & Co., London, 1902, 15 × 10 cm, 261 pp.
3) Valentin Scherer, Dürer, des Meisters Gemälde, Kupferstiche und Holzschnitte, Klassiker der Kunst in Gesamtausgaben; Bd. 4, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart und Leipzig, 1904, 26.2 × 19.5 cm, 396 pp.
4) The Masterpieces of Dürer, Gowans’ Art Books no. 27, Gowans and Gray, London, 1909, 15 × 10 cm, 64 pp.
(fig. 7)
Regarding Van Eyck, a postcard in the Ryûsei-related materials published in 2013 indicates that Ryûsei himself referred to the following book during his recuperation.
Kaemmerer, Ludwig, Hubert und Jan van Eyck. Künstler-Monographien XXXV, Derlag von Delhagen & Klafing, Bielefeld und Leipzig, 1898, 26 × 18 cm.
With these picture compendia as evidence, I then investigated the Koya portrait production process and the influence from Dürer on the work. This portrait indicates that Ryûsei learned from Dürer’s portraits across a range of elements, from composition to realistic depiction, head modeling and details. Can’t we then evaluate the portrait as a successful portrait that effectively expresses the skin or surface material character and the person’s internal nature through these factors learned from Dürer.
3. Still-life Production – Apples and Hands
After creating his Koya portrait, Ryûsei then went on to paint still-life themes in his Two Apples and An Apple Exists on Top of a Pot, along with Hand modeled after his wife’s hands. While it can be said that in still-life works Ryûsei separated from the Dürer influence seen in the portrait, his interest in the hand motif seen in Hand is probably influence from Dürer. This article further examined Ryûsei’s interest in the hand motif and his self-portrait in terms of their connections with Dürer works.
Ryûsei wrote a long text while he was painting his An Apple Exists on Top of a Pot. This text was then published as “Tenrankai no tame ni” (For the Exhibition) in the catalogue of the 3rd Sôdôsha exhibition held that November. Ryûsei’s comment in this text, “the clear illness of the modern age,” indicates that he has begun to have further questions about the art of the modern age. This statement can be considered a verbalization of Ryûsei’s desire to express the “dignity, solemnity, noble, love, mystery, power, etc.” which the age known as the modern had lost. And doesn’t this concur with the inner beauty that Ryûsei later spoke of. At the same time, Ryûsei realized that his own expression was tending towards copying the classic, and as such a questioning of the modern era. This can be seen as a turning point when we consider the development of Ryûsei’s art overall. However, while clearly at this point he was questioning, he had not yet reached the point of an anti-modern, reject the modern criticism.
During the latter half of his recuperation period, not only did he physically recover, but also on the economic front, patrons appeared and he began to sell more works. Namely, from around November to around February, Ryûsei’s life was by no means bleak, and I believe that he had a real sense of the bright potential in his later work and life.journal articl
Report on Kabuki Photographs Taken by Umemura Yutaka (7)
Get PDFThe Department of Intangible Cultural Heritage has continued to catalogue black and white negative films taken by Umemura Yutaka (June 15, 1923 to June 5, 2007), which were endowed to the Department in fiscal year 2007. An outline of the entire collection and Umemura’s achievements can be found in the initial report by Tsuchida Makiko in Research and Reports on Intangible Cultural Heritage, No. 3 . By the previous fiscal year, the Department completed sorting out of 8,977 negatives taken between 1956 and 1976.
Umemura was a photographer who worked for Engeki Shuppansha, a theatrical publisher dealing especially with kabuki . His photographs appeared mainly in the monthly publication Engekikai for as long as 57 years, from the November 1950 issue, the first of the publication after World War II, until the May 2007 issue immediately before his death. He covered a wide range of photographing and the collections also include a significant number of non-kabuki negatives, such as stage photos of modern drama, snapshots of actors at interviews and even those featuring stage sets and properties.
Though previous reports catalogued the negative films one by one, from this report the contents of the negatives are classified folder by folder based on the date, venue, and program name of the performance photographed. In this seventh annual report, a list of 664 negative film folders (containing 19,229 negatives) dating between 1978 and 1988 is provided.departmental bulletin pape
Research on “Asuka-daibutsu” Using a Portable X-ray Diffraction Analyzer
Get PDFThe statue of Shakanyorai (so-called “Asuka-daibutsu”),which is about three meters in height, is enshrined as the principal image of Asuka-dera temple located in Asuka village, Nara prefecture. According to historical sources, the statue is considered to have
been made by Tori Busshi at the beginning of the 7th century. It is an important statue because it is considered to be the first Joroku Buddha in Japan.However,there are various opinions as to which part of the statue is original because it was damaged by fire in the early Kamakura period.
On June 16th and 17th, 2016, research of the preserved state and production techniques of Asuka-daibutsu was conducted (research representative,Prof.Fujioka of Osaka University). In this project,the authors conducted investigation of materials on the surface of the statue by using a portable X-ray diffraction analyzer (Riken Keiki Co.,Ltd.,XRDF),which was introduced to the Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties in 2015.
Scaffolding was constructed around the statue and measurements were taken at 10 points on the surface of the head and body. Together with the 3 measured points on a fragment considered to have been a part of Asuka-daibutsu,the number of measured points was 13 in total.
In the present study, the ratio of the intensities of signals due to copper (I)oxide and copper (II)oxide was calculated from the data obtained by the portable X-ray diffraction analyzer from each measurement point.The results are compared with the viewpoint of art history to discuss which part of the statue is original.journal articl
Analysis of Unpleasant Odor Generated from Tsunami-affected Paper Materials and Hypothesis of Its Occurrence Mechanism
Get PDFThe tsunami following the Great East Japan Earthquake that occurred on March 11, 2011 caused great damage to cultural assets and materials that were valuable to the region. The Iwate Prefectural Museum continues restoration work even now but has been faced with the trouble of unpleasant odor which was an obstacle to treatment work and storage. The present report introduces the analysis of gas emitted and chemical analysis of water used for the treatment of damaged documents.
In order to identify the gas components,a conservation paper used in storage was placed in a TedlarⓇ gas sampling bag that was filled with clean air and allowed to stand at room temperature for 1 day. Then air filled with gas from the conservation paper was aerated through a sampling tube (TenaxⓇ-TA). The apparatus was introduced into a gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer (GC/MS) for qualitative analysis. Ammonium ion concentration test, sulfide ion concentration test, pH measurement, microbial cleanliness test using ATP (adenosine triphosphate)residues,and protein amount test were performed on treated water.
Malodorous substances, such as acetic acid, propionic acid and butyric acid, were detected by GC/MS. In addition,many aldehydes were detected. The odorous water used for treatment had a great amount of ammonium ion, a slight amount of sulfide ion and
much protein residues. In addition,microbial quantity increased as the treating days went on.It is presumed that the odor was created from organic matter that was decomposed by anaerobic microorganisms in the sludge.
As an improvement of the treatment method, promotion of water treatment under aerobic conditions and protein removal at an early stage are to be considered. As a countermeasure for documents that already smell,repeated pressure reduction to promote
gas dissipation is recommended.journal articl