Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties - Publications
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History of Conservation of Decorated Tumuli -From the Viewpoint of Conservation Science -
Get PDFHistory of conservation of decorated tumuli is reviewed as a part of the history of conservation science in Japan. Decorated tumuli were filled and sealed immediately after being built. However,during subsequent history,they were sometimes reused for various other purposes and,in such cases,their conservation environment was changed. After the Edo period, academic studies have been carried out on decorated tumuli,and it is possible to obtain information about the past environment or state of the decorations through descriptions or sketches in such old documents. Following the Meiji Restoration,decorated tumuli came to be protected by law. Then, after Ozuka Tomb was investigated by various scientists in 1969, decorated tumuli began to be sealed with glass door. After the 1990s, public presentations of decorated tumuli have become more common. An understanding of such history is a prerequisite for the conservation of decorated tumuli.journal articl
Study on the Environmental Condition in Hagia Eirene, Istanbul, Turkey
Get PDFHagia Eirene is a Byzantine architecture remaining in Istanbul, originally known as Constantinople,the capital of the Byzantine Empire. This building has masonry construction of the same period as that of Hagia Sophia. It has been used variously as a church,
armory,warehouse,museum,and concert hall. Now it is managed by Topkapi Palace as a church museum.
A new research program in Hagia Eirene has been launched since 2013 which is intended for the conservation of mosaics remaining on the inner walls and the suggestion of practical/effective conservation measures based on the assessment of the environmental condition in Hagia Eirene.
The following results were obtained from the first survey conducted from September 5 to November 15, 2013.
1) The internal environmental condition does not have much variation despite the fact that the windows of the west gallery are opened all the time. But the fact that it has been used for concerts since 1980 has had some impact on the internal environment,especially increase in temperature at the apse.
2) Analysis of crystallized salts revealed that most of the salts on the wall of the atrium and the northwestern column of the gallery were sodium sulfate,with the exception of nitratine on a part of the northwestern column of the gallery.
These results provide a preliminary consideration into prospects for future research.journal articl
An Evaluation of Formic Acid /Acetic Acid Ratio in Organic Acid Concentration in Display Cases
Get PDFIn the museum environment, contamination of air in display cases by organic acid gases emitted from interior materials has been a problem because metal objects are deteriorated due to acetic acid and formic acid among organic acids. Therefore, it is
necessary to measure acetic acid and formic acid concentration in display cases. An easy method is to use a gas-detecting tube to measure organic acid concentration. However,it is not possible to know the concentration of acetic acid and formic acid separately by this method. So it is important to know the formic acid/acetic acid ratio in organic acid concentration.
In the present study, the ratio of formic acid/acetic acid concentration in actual display cases and emission rate from interior materials were analyzed. Then,organic acid concentration measured by gas-detecting tube method was compared with acetic acid
concentration measured by ion chromatography method.
As a result,it was found that in actual display cases in a museum built after 2003, the ratio of formic acid concentration was estimated to be less than 0.1 of acetic acid concentration. Formic acid /acetic acid ratio of the emission rates from the plywood materials on which wallpaper was adhered was smaller than 0.1. There was correlation between organic acid concentration measured by gas-detecting tube method and acetic acid concentration measured by ion chromatography method. From these results it is considered that it is possible to estimate acetic acid and formic acid concentration information using the organic acid concentration obtained by gas-detecting tube method.journal articl
Report on Films in the Collection of the Department of Intangible Cultural Heritage and Their Digitization
Get PDFAs of March 2014, the Department of Intangible Cultural Heritage of the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo has a collection of 35 positive films: 9 items of 16mm film and 26 items of 8mm film. The main purpose of this report is to introduce these films and especially those that were digitized during the present fiscal year.
Some of the films were donated or entrusted to the Department, while others are thought to have been purchased and still others are thought to have been filmed by researchers of the Department with an 8mm camera. Among the films are those that are assumed to have been filmed from the latter half of the 1960s to the 1970s. Some of them do not have information regarding the year or the place they were filmed or the contents. For this reason, details of the contents or the history by which the films came into the Department’ s collection are not known for some of the films. Investigation will be continued to obtain information about such matters. In addition, films whose copyrights are unclear will be used only within the Institute and will be treated as materials not yet open to the public.
Among the films digitized this year was a record of “Izaiho” ritual filmed at Kudakajima, Okinawa Prefecture on December 1966. This film was compiled by the Committee for the Protection of Cultural Properties of the then Government of the Ryukyu Islands, but it has been confirmed that the Board of Education of Okinawa Prefecture, which would have inherited the rights to the work today, does not have the film. It was also found that the Okinawa Prefectural Museum and Art Museum, which might have been entrusted with the work, does not have it either. This implies the possibility that there is almost no organization which has the film in its collection. For this reason it is possible that the film in the Department’ s collection is the only remaining one. Although the quality of the film is poor as a record of a ritual, the condition in which it was filmed having been bad and focus not clear at places, it is hoped that the film would be utilized for research because of its rarity.departmental bulletin pape
Material for Art Research, The Guimet Version Illustrated Handscrolls of the Legend of Tenjin (Dajoitokuten-engi-emaki): Transcription of All Text Passages and Reproduction of All Scroll Sections (Part II)
Get PDFFor résumé, see Bijutsu Kenkyu No.410journal articl
Material for Art Research, Transcription of Ogawa Kazumasa's Letters to Kuroda Seiki and Kuroda Seiki’s Views on Photography
Get PDFIn Bijutsu Kenkyû No. 411, Saitô Yôichi (Tojo Museum of History) presented a Research Material article that introduced the Kakô-kai photography club organized by members of Japan’s nobility, their club journal Hana-nokage, and the Ingahyô critiques of member photography by Kuroda Seiki and Ogawa Kazumasa that were published in the journal. This article presents transcriptions of seven letters written by Ogawa Kazumasa to Kuroda Seiki, now preserved in the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo (Tobunken). Further, Kuroda Seiki’s Ingahyô critiques published in the Hana-no-kage journal and Kuroda’s view on photography are interpreted by the author. In addition, Okatsuka Akiko (Edo-Tokyo Museum) provides her interpretation of the connections between Ogawa Kazumasa, the photography groups of the day and the nobility.
The Tobunken houses approximately 7,400 letters addressed to Kuroda Seiki. Some of those letters have been used as materials primarily for studies on Seiki himself, and have been made available to the public. At present, in order to make these important reference materials more useful and available for study, Institute staff is proceeding with the digitization of all of the letters and the creation of a catalogue listing. In addition to the many letters exchanged between Kuroda Seiki and the artists he was in contact with, they also include a considerable number of letters from famous contemporaries in other fields. On the other hand, studies in various fields have already progressed on Seiki and his contemporaries. The Tobunken Department of Art Research, Archives and Information Systems, responsible for the Seiki letters, cooperates with non-Tobunken specialists who are studying the artists who authored the letters, and conduct joint surveys of the materials. On occasion the results of those studies are published as Research Material in the Bijutsu Kenkyû, including images of the letters, their transcriptions, and interpretations of their subjects and the relationship between Seiki and the sender. This issue’s presentation of Ogawa Kazumasa’s letters to Seiki is the first of such publications. Given survey progress and the Bijutsu Kenkyû editorial process, these Seiki letter publications will not occur on a regular basis, but the hope is to publish a compilation of the findings of the studies per each important letter sender.
Kuroda Seiki’s View of Photography
1. Kuroda Seiki’s Ingahyô in Hana-no-kage
It is fascinating to read Kuroda’s Ingahyô photography critiques published in the Hana-no-kage journal while comparing them to the photographs under discussion. Originally the photographs reproduced in this journal are works “expressing” nature shot as monochrome images. Almost as if Kuroda was completely unconcerned about the photographer’s photographic “expression” of many of these works, he appears to have seen them from the beginning as paintings. Many aspects of this critique stance by Kuroda reflect the relationship at the time between the photographic world and the art world (specifically that of Japanese Western-style painting). In other words, with the introduction of photographic pictorialism to Japan at the end of the 19th century, painting (Western painting) became the standard for photography, and Kuroda’s view on painting became the standard, as is, for the photographers of the day.
2. Kuroda’s Creative Works at the Time of the Ingahyô Articles in Hana-no-kage (around 1907, Meiji 40)
Kuroda’s views on painting are thought to have positioned the nude as the highest form of painting even though painters could not freely paint nudes. In fact, in his own creative work, Kuroda resisted social pressure about nudes, and continued to paint them. However, from 1907 to 1912, Kuroda gradually began to cease to paint nudes and appears to have turned instead to themes of labor and leisure in rural villages. It was as if Kuroda was approaching the photographic world that he critiqued and evaluated in Hanano-kage. This can be seen as related to changes in Kuroda’s views on painting. There were other changes in Kuroda’s view of paintings, such as his awareness of the difficulty in expressing the Japanese nude form, and his identification of new subject matter in actual rural farming village scenes.journal articl
Exhibition Review: Two Exhibitions held on Namban Lacquer in 2013-Lacas Namban (Madrid) and Date Masamune’s Dream: The Keichô Envoy to Europe and Namban Culture (Sendai)
Get PDFThis article provides an introduction to the contents, viewpoints and meaning of two of the recent exhibitions held worldwide on the theme of Namban art, namely the Lacas Namban exhibition in Madrid and the Date Masamune’s Dream exhibition held in Sendai, both in 2013.
1. Lacas Namban: Huellas de Japón en España: IV Centenario de la Embajada Keichô exhibition June 13 – September 29, Madrid, National Museum of Decorative Arts
Commemorating the 400th anniversary of Japan’s interactions with Spain, this exhibition was organized by the Spanish Ministerio de Educación, Culture y Deporte, the Spanish National Museum of Decorative Arts, and the Japan Foundation. The exhibition was based on the research findings of the “Japan and Spain: a relationship through art” research group in Spain.
The exhibition began with a display of books, maps and Japanese-made armor and equestrian equipment that reflect the activities of the Spanish and Portuguese who traveled to Japan from the latter half of the 16th century onwards, presenting the historical background within Japan, and the process by which the Keichô Envoy was sent to Europe. The exhibition continued with a display of more than 30 Namban lacquer works that had been preserved in Spain, introducing the history of such works, how they were used and how they changed in appearance over the decades. Production of Namban lacquers ended by the mid 17th century. The exhibition concluded with a display of the Enconchado paintings made in Nueva España, which were influenced by Namban arts, and the Maque lacquer works that were influenced by makie.
This exhibition was of special note for its clarification of the actual state of the many Namban lacquer works that have been traditionally handed down in Spain, and was also important for introducing the existence of works decorated in related styles in South America and examples whose documentation allow us to posit the latest possible dates for the transmission of the works to Europe. Since many of the extant Namban lacquer works do not have clear production dates or have questions remaining regarding their production dates, the examples introduced in this exhibition will assist future research on how these Namban lacquer works were actually used, as well as a more detailed examination of their dating.
The exhibition catalogue Lacas Namban Huellas de Japón en España: IV Centenario de la Embajada Keichô includes ten explanatory essays, a catalogue raisonné of the works, a glossary of terms related to lacquer and an explanation of related historical documents and articles. The catalogue, in Spanish, was accompanied by a CD-ROM that included the Spanish texts and an abbreviated English version of the texts. The English version provided abstracts of eight essays, the catalogue raisonné and glossary, along with full English versions of two essays on the actual state of Namban lacquer works handed down in Spain, plus an article on Enconchado-Maque.
2. Date Masamune’s Dream: The Keichô Envoy to Europe and Namban Culture exhibition, October 4 – November 17, 2013, Sendai City Museum
This exhibition focuses on the activities and background of the Envoy sent by the Tohoku regional lord Date Masamune at the beginning of the Edo shogunate with the aim of establishing trade routes with Nueva España and Europe.
The exhibition consisted of five sections, with the first section showing the influence of the so-called Namban people, Europeans who traveled to Japan in the latter half of the 16th century, through maps and early Western style paintings and Namban screens created in Japan. It also presented armor, documents, various maps and charts, and Namban lacquer works that were created under the influence of the connection between imported culture and the Warring States military generals of the day. Continuing on, there was a section of comparative display presenting principal figures that were involved in the Keichô Envoy to Europe and their armor and other items. The exhibition then addressed the fact that the Keichô Envoy and its mission was almost completely forgotten because the shogunate’s banning of Christianity in Japan was enforced almost from the time that the Keichô Envoy set sail for Europe, and introduced the Iwakura Mission 250 years later that led to the renewed knowledge of the Keichô Envoy.
This exhibition focused on the powerful figures in Japan at the time, not only Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu, the daimyô of Kyushu and Kinai who had converted to Christianity, but also the daimyô of the Tohoku region, such as Date Masamune, Gamô Ujisato, and Nambu Nobunao. The section also featured a display of Namban items that have been traditionally handed down in the Sendai area, and thus was a history-focused exhibition that examined Namban culture from a Tohoku perspective. With the exception of one work, the exhibition featured the more than 30 Namban lacquer works extant in Japan, and displayed them in a manner that allowed an understanding of their characteristics, forms and vessel types. The display also featured an approach that allowed viewers to understand the trade and international diplomacy aspects of the works that were the aims of the Keichô mission.
Of particular note was the first display in Japan of the Namban Coffer with Birds, Flowers and Animals made by the makie and mother-of-pearl inlay technique, described in 1616 by Father Carrillo as “a large chest decorated with gold and pearls,” from the Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales in Madrid (fig. 1, p. 49). This record also indicates the importance of this work as it is thought to be the oldest example of Namban lacquer, presented to the monastery before 1603 by Maria de Habsburg (1528–1603), the Empress of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II. The author believes that the chest mentioned in this document could be an Indian mother-of-pearl work (fig. 2, p. 49), but in any event, it was deeply meaningful that this extremely important work in the study of Namban lacquers was included in the exhibition.
The catalogue for this exhibition, with the same title as the exhibition, included four essays and supplemental information by the organizing scholars on the Namban works extant in Italy and Spain.journal articl
Material for Art Research, Introduction of a Newly Discovered Work: The Exhibition Catalogue for the 8th Hakuba-kai Exhibition
Get PDFThis article introduces the exhibition catalogue for the 8th Hakuba-kai Exhibition held in the Number 5 Building on the site of the Domestic Industries Exposition in Ueno Park from September 16 to October 27, 1903. Prior to its recent discovery the existence of this catalogue and its contents were unknown.
The author visited the home of Takagi Satoshi in March 2013 in Amakusa city, Kumamoto prefecture, to conduct a survey of the family’s collection. Mr. Takagi showed me this catalogue and thus provided the first confirmation of its existence. Takagi Satoshi is the grandson of Takagi Iwao (1879–1954), who was a classmate of the Meiji period Western style painter Aoki Shigeru (1882–1911) of the Western painting division of the Tokyo Bijutsu Gakko. In April 2013, Mr. Takagi donated this catalogue to the Ishibashi Museum of Art, Kurume in Fukuoka prefecture and today it is preserved as part of that museum’s collection.
This article introduces the catalogue, its illustrations and texts, and mentions some of the new information discovered through the appearance of this catalogue.
The Hakuba-kai was formed in June 1896 by Kuroda Seiki and others as a Western style art society, and that autumn the group held their first exhibition. They held a total of 13 exhibitions up until 1910, and disbanded in March 1911. The Hakuba-kai was formed on the basis of the new artistic trends and techniques of the West, and had a massive influence on the art world in Japan at the time, and indeed, on Japanese society in general. The activities of this group were closely connected to the formation of academism in the history of Japanese modern art.
The activities of the Hakuba-kai were introduced in an exhibition held from 1996–1997, Starting Anew in the Meiji Period: A Retrospective Exhibition of Paintings from the Hakubakai Group 1896–1911, at the Bridgestone Museum of Art, Tokyo, the Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto and the Ishibashi Museum of Art. This exhibition was extremely meaningful for its clarification of the group’s activities overall. However, of the exhibition catalogues for all 13 exhibitions held by the Hakuba-kai, two catalogues, those for the 8th exhibition held in 1903 and the 9th exhibition held in 1904, have been unconfirmed, and while an advertisement for the picture compilation of the 9th exhibition held in 1904 is known, it is uncertain whether or not that compilation was ever actually published. In this state of affairs, the discovery of this exhibition catalogue for the 8th exhibition held in 1903 is extremely important.
The following is the basic bibliographic information on this catalogue.
Title: Meiji 36 nen Dai hakkai hakubakai tenrankai shuppin mokuroku
H. 15.4, W. 9 cm, cover, back cover, 16 pages internally, string bound
Cover: Meiji 36 nen/Daihakkai Hakubakai Tenrankai Shuppin Mokuroku/Seika Shoin hakkô Title page: Meiji 36/Daihakkai Hakubakai Tenrankai Shuppin Mokuroku/Seika Shoin hakkô Notes: There is no colophon noting the publication date and other publication information. An advertisement appears on the last page, “Hakubakai shinsakushû (Zen sansatsu, Seika Shoin, Meiji 36 nen Hakubakai Daihakkaiten)”. While there is no publication date recorded, given the time period of the exhibition itself, it can be surmised that the volume was published in September 1903. Collection: Ishibashi Museum of Art (donated by Takagi Satoshi in April 2013).journal articl
