Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties - Publications
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Regarding the Use of Brass in, Jiko-ji kyo, a National Treasure
Get PDFThe present report shows the analytical results of the materials used in Jiko-ji kyo held at Jiko-ji temple in Saitama prefecture. Jiko-ji kyo is a set of sutras composed of 32 volumes, decorated with gold, silver and coloring, that was produced in the Kamakura
period (13th century). All the sutras were restored over a period of 7 years since 2008 because many of their golden parts had peeled off and the color had changed. Nondestructive investigation using X-ray fluorescence analysis was conducted during the
restoration process. As a result, both gold and brass materials were found from the parts where the golden materials had peeled off severely. Only brass materials could be found from the parts where the gold color had changed significantly. Careful judgment was
needed to determine whether the brass found in the present analysis is original or from subsequent repairs. Up to now, it had been thought that brass began to be used after the early Edo period (16th century).Even if brass was found in a work produced before the Edo period,it was often thought that the work would be an imitation made after the Edo period. However,regarding the brass found in the present analysis,it can be judged that the brass is original because there is not any data or image to consider that brass had been used in past repairs.This analytical result shows that brass was used in the Kamakura period and in sutras.journal articl
Comparison of Visible Reflection Spectra of Color Materials Illuminated by Fluorescent and White LED Tube Lamps
Get PDFThe difference in visible reflection spectra of four color materials painted on paper,
illuminated by fluorescent and white LED tube lamps of the same color temperature,was
investigated. Based on observed spectra, the following may be said.
(1) In the same illuminating and detecting angles, no significant difference was observed
from measured spectra with two types of lamp.
(2) Changes in illuminating and detecting angles caused slight difference in spectra,which
may affect to the observed hue of each color material.journal articl
Ogata Kôrin’s Time in Edo and Changes in his Brushwork – Focusing on A Budding Plum Tree in the Freer Gallery of Art
Get PDFTwo major works by Ogata Kôrin (1658-1716), namely his relatively early period Irises (pair of six-panel screens, Nezu Museum) and his late period Red and White Plum Blossoms (pair of two-panel screens, MOA Museum of Art), are both flower themes, depicted in full color on a gold leaf ground. And yet, there are massive differences in the linework depicting the subjects, the color technique and composition. In the period between their productions, Kôrin traveled several times from Kyoto to Edo over the course of 1704–1709 (Hôei 1–6), and there created works. While in Edo Kôrin is thought to have seen and studied paintings of such kanga (Chinese painting) lineage artists as Sesshû and the Kanô school, and his own painting style was further developed by these experiences. Given the unknowns about the details of his artwork production background or what he actually did in Edo, much room for investigation remains.
This article examines Kôrin’s production around the time of his sojourns in Edo, focusing on works that bear the “Dôsû” （道 崇） seal. First, I confirm details of the three benchmark “Dôsû” seal works, namely Flowers and Grasses of the Four Seasons (four panels, private collection), Azaleas (Hanging scroll, Hatakeyama Memorial Museum of Fine Art) and Waves (two-panel screen, The Metropolitan Museum of Art), and then examine A Budding Plum Tree (six-panel screen, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.) which had yet to be subjected to a detailed study. This screen entered the Freer collection in 1905, and was owned prior to that time by Thomas E. Waggaman, a Washington, D.C. industrialist. The screen appears in his collection catalogue published in 1896. During its time in the Waggaman collection, the screen was displayed in his home gallery to both artists and art lovers. When Waggaman’s business collapsed in 1904, his assets were dispersed. An auction of his artworks, one of the largest of its kind in America at the time, was held and Charles L. Freer bought four paintings, including A Budding Plum Tree. Ernest E. Fenollosa wrote the note of the auction catalogue and comments of this work.
Compositionally A Budding Plum Tree is weighted towards the left, where the large trunk of a white blossom plum tree is shown rising out of the top of the composition, only to turn back and hang down into the central panels. Blossoms are seen budding on its branches. A flowing stream and earthen mound are seen in the lower section, with Kôrin’s signature “Hôkkyô Kôrin” and “Dôsû” round relief seal appearing on the center of the screen’s left edge. There is pigment loss and damage to the painting paper itself, and there is evidence of restoration work that would be considered inappropriate by contemporary cultural properties conservation standards. These factors are a hindrance to its viewing and appreciation. In particular, there are both small and large areas of damage in the central third and fourth panels, which were subjected to supplementation, overpainting and other repair, and that leads to a sense of incongruity with the following panels five and six. The sense of unnatural expression in the work derives from this later restoration work, and it means very careful observation of the painting surface is required. While A Budding Plum Tree has issues in terms of its condition, it also includes some extremely important elements that indicate it can be considered in relation to Kôrin himself.
A panel of this screen is made up of three sheets of paper, thus indicating that it was made from large-scale paper imported from China. This use of three vertical registers of paper is rare, with the majority of the panels in Kôrin’s folding screens made up of five registers of paper. In the premodern era there are some examples of three-register folding screens by Kanô and Unkoku school artists, and it can thus be surmised that Chinese-made paper was used to accord with the Chinese-style painting subjects primarily expressed in ink painting form. Kôrin’s use of a three-register array of paper can be considered to be an influence from kanga lineage works encountered during his time in Edo, and this screen an experiment in composing an ink plum tree across a large, six-panel screen format. While this experiment cannot necessarily be considered to have succeeded in terms of Kôrin’s oeuvre, it can be considered important for his later painting production.
Plum trees and plum blossoms were subjects closely connected to Kôrin, as seen in such paintings as his Red and White Plum Trees, and his Bamboo and Plum Tree (twopanel screen, Tokyo National Museum) and his preparatory drawings for maki-e works seen in The Konishi Family Collection of Kôrin Archives. Indeed, it would not be an exaggeration to say that he depicted plum trees or plum blossoms wherever possible. Elements such as the form of the plum tree trunk here, with its sinuous curves or abrupt angle bends, his depiction of plum blossoms in three different forms, face on, profile and buds, all are characteristics shared with the plum-related forms in other Kôrin works. Thus the article concludes that A Budding Plum Tree is a work that reveals both the painting style changes that occurred in his time in Edo, and was one step in the ongoing process of his later painting style development.journal articl
Documentary Films on the Production of Aobana-gami by Konoshima Masao
Get PDFAobana-gami is a coloring material used in making the preliminary sketch for yuzen dyeing. It is made by dyeing washi (Japanese paper) with aobana , a kind of dayflower (Commelina communis L. var. hortensis Makino). It was produced in large amounts in the past but now its production is on the verge of disappearance.
Recently, documentary films taken in 1963 and 1978 by Dr. Konoshima Masao, a scientist of natural medicine, on the production of aobana-gami were presented to the Department of Intangible Cultural Heritage. They serve as valuable material in preserving the techniques for the production of aobana-gami which are about to be lost today.departmental bulletin pape
The History of Conservation and Utilization of “Disaster Remains”in Japan from the View Point of Conservation Science
Get PDFThe word “earthquake remains”has become widely noticed after the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011,and most of the effectively-conserved “disaster remains”in Japan are the ones related to all types of disasters, not limited to earthquakes,after 2011.However, the period between similar large-scale disasters occurring due to the same cause is normally by far longer than the life of a man.Therefore,when retaining “disaster remains” in order to prevent further disasters, it is also necessary to conserve “disaster remains” which occurred far before the birth of present people. The present paper discusses how “disaster remains”have been regarded by people and how their conservation has been attempted historically in Japan. Though “disaster remains”dating from tens of thousands of years ago are quite commonly found by excavations in Japan, there are almost no remains of disasters which occurred in the ancient times or the middle ages that are conserved and utilized in situ.After the modern era,geological outcrops,such as faults and products of volcanic activities,have become conserved as “natural monuments”for mainly academic reasons. However, conservation science has not contributed much to their conservation.It is basically after the 1990’s that “disaster remains”have become conserved in order to prevent future disasters.Since conservation science has already been contributing to the preservation of archaeological sites appropriately and to the transmission of their values down to people in the future, it is also expected to fulfill a similar role with “disaster remains,”which are traces of natural phenomena and not of human activities.journal articl
Development of a Two-dimensional Imaging Detector for Investigation of Materials Composing Cultural Properties
Get PDFIf portable apparatuses for X-ray diffraction analysis are applied more practically in the field of conservation science, it would be possible to obtain further information about the materials used in cultural properties. The aim of the present study is to develop a
two-dimensional imaging detector for X-ray diffraction and to evaluate its performance.
An X-ray detector was constructed using gas electron multiplier foils. For data acquisition, new IC chips called “STRIPIX”,which were developed for tracking detectors in high energy physics,were mounted on the signal readout board.Pixel-type electrodes are
arranged two-dimensionally on the STRIPIX chip and electric signals deposited on each row and column are collected and added,thus reducing the number of readout channels.By using this new and simple system, the Debye-Scherrer ring from a powder sample was successfully detected as a two-dimensional image.
The next step is to improve the resolution of images and safety to cultural properties during investigation.journal articl
International Symposium Proceedings, Revised Edition, In Search of the Multiple Origins of Namban Lacquer
Get PDF国立文化財機構東京文化財研究所名称：「南蛮漆器の多源性を探る」
日時：2017年3月4日（土）・5（日） 10：30－17：00（開場10：00）
会場：東京文化財研究所地下セミナー室
プログラム：
3月4日（土）
（開場：10時）
◎セクションⅠ:問題点の所在と設定
10：35―11：15 小林 公治（東京文化財研究所）
「南蛮漆器の多源性を探る 問題点の把握と提起」
◎セクションⅡ：南蛮漆器をめぐる歴史的・地理的背景
11：15―11：55 岡 美穂子氏(東京大学史料編纂所)
「ポルトガル古文献に見る南蛮漆器に関わるモノの記録
－ガルシア・ダ・オルタ『インド薬草・薬物対話集』（1563）を中心に」
13：30―14：10 宮里 正子氏(浦添市美術館)
「古琉球期の漆文化～大交易時代にみえる漆芸について～」
14：10―14：40 小林 公治・吉田 邦夫氏（東京大学総合研究博物館）
「南蛮漆器の制作年代」
◎セクションⅢ：南蛮漆器の素材と技術
（1） 漆・接着剤
15：00―15：40 本多 貴之氏(明治大学理工学部)
「南蛮漆器に使われた漆・接着剤」
15：40―16：20 吉田 邦夫氏(東京大学総合研究博物館)
「Sr同位体分析による南蛮漆器の漆産地」（仮題）
（2）木材
16：20―17：00 能城 修一氏(森林総合研究所)
「南蛮漆器に使われた木材」
3月5日（日）
（3）貝・「鮫」皮
10：35―11：15 黒住 耐二氏（千葉県立中央博物館）
「南蛮漆器に用いられた貝類に関する予察」
11：15―12：05 クリスティヌ・グーテ氏（ヴィクトリア・アンド・アルバート博物館)
「16世紀後半から17世紀前半の日本漆器に使われた｢鮫｣皮」
◎セクションⅣ：南蛮漆器の伝統性と外来性、影響と広がり
13：20―14：00 末兼 俊彦氏（東京国立博物館）
「17世紀における日本系金具について」
14：00―14：50 ウルリケ・ケルバー氏（エヴォラ大学）
「南蛮漆器と密接な関係を持つ、インドおよび中国製のポルトガル・アジア様式漆塗り調度類」
14：50―15：30 神谷 嘉美氏（東京都立産業技術研究センター）
「南蛮漆器を彩る金色線の形状と材質」（仮題）
◎セクションⅤ：総合討論
15：50―16：55 総合討論（質疑応答・コメント）
発行：国立文化財機構東京文化財研究所
編集：東京文化財研究所文化財情報資料部広領域研究室research repor