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Adapt & Evolve 2015: East Asian Materials and Techniques in Western Conservation. Proceedings from the International Conference of the Icon Book & Paper Group, London 8–10 April 2015

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East to West: The flow of materials and techniques in paper conservation

Katsuhiko Masuda

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To cite this article: Katsuhiko Masuda, ‘East to West: The flow of materials and techniques in paper conservation’ in Adapt & Evolve 2015: East Asian Materials and Techniques in Western Conservation. Proceedings from the International Conference of the Icon Book & Paper Group, London 8–10 April 2015 (London, The Institute of Conservation: 2017), 1–11.

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Adapt & Evolve 2015: East Asian Materials and Techniques in Western Conservation. Proceedings from the International Conference of the Icon Book & Paper Group, London 8-10 April 2015

Katsuhiko Masuda


Introduction 1 Paper and paste in Japanese paper conservationOver the course of its history, Japan has imported both culture and cultural objects from China and Korea and developed them in a Japanese manner. One such object is paper. But before I discuss paper, I will begin with paste.

Today, we use wheat-starch paste for lining and jointing papers. But, when we examine the paper in an eighth century Buddhist sutra, we can find joints of a brown colour and an adhesive that is hard to dissolve with water. Starch paste, on the other hand, is easily loosened or dissolved by water. So, we can conclude that at some point our ancestors changed the paste they were using from strong and insoluble to soluble.

That change has given us a great gift—reversibility. We paste papers, not perfectly and not for ever, but adequately. We use thinner paste than European conservators might imagine, allowing us to repeatedly restore at intervals of 100 years or so. I do not think our ancestors knew the ethics of conservation, but I do believe that it is thanks to them that we now have reversibility in paper conservation.

2 The Japanese way of developing papermakingJapan changed or, I should say, further refined methods of papermaking developed in China and Korea. For example, in Japan an upper frame is used with the bamboo mould and supporting frame, whereas China and Korea do not have this upper frame. This has improved the sheet-forming technique.

The upper frame provides the Japanese papermaker with improved fibre suspension, causing the fibres to remain suspended for longer. Furthermore, the addition of mucilage from plants causes the water to become viscous, so it cannot easily pass through the bamboo filter. While forming a sheet, the papermaker continuously shakes the set of frames holding the mould inbetween. The water containing the suspended fibres moves forward and back, right to left. This ‘swinging water’ is the scenery of sheet-formation in Japanese papermaking. The upper frame, used in this way, causes the fibres to be well oriented in the sheet and allows subtle variation in the techniques of sheet-formation, allowing Japan to have many different types of papers.

Handmade papers in Japan are made from the bast fibres of plants, which are cooked in an alkaline solution, resulting in the chemical stability which the European conservator needs for their work. The ease by which treatments using such stable paper can be reversed is important to the Western conservator.

Before the active introduction of Japanese paper and techniques to the WestBefore the Second World War a few museums in Europe and the USA employed traditionally trained scroll mounters from China and Japan for the restoration of their Oriental collections. In 1961 Iwataro Oka II, President of the Mounter’s Association for National Treasures and Important Cultural

© 2017 Katsuhiko Masuda

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Adapt & Evolve 2015: Proceedings from the Icon Book & Paper Group Conference

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Properties, Kyoto, Japan, made a tour of the West for four and a half months, inspecting Western conservation techniques and demonstrating some Japanese techniques.

UNESCO planned to introduce Japanese techniques to Western countries in 1965 at the 7th ICOM General Conference; the Japanese National Commission for UNESCO and the Japanese National Committee for ICOM, with the cooperation of the UNESCO and on the request of the ICOM, agreed to organize the ‘Meeting of Experts on the Conservation and Restoration of Oriental Paintings in Japan’ (Fig. 1). The meeting took place from 27 November to 13 December 1967 in Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan. The overseas participants were Paul Philipott from ICCROM, Paolo Mora from the Instituto Centrale del Restauro Rome, Henri Liard from Musée du Louvre and Monuments Historiques, Regine Wittermann and Nicole Geetghebeur from Institut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique, and Anne Clapp as an observer from the USA.

The meeting’s aim was to provide Western specialists/restorers with an opportunity to become acquainted with the techniques for the restoration of Oriental paintings and to exchange opinions with Japanese restorers.

The participants visited laboratories and observed the processes of Japanese bookbinding, the creation of folding screens and hanging scroll mounting. They also visited the studios of handmade papermakers and Japanese artists to see the natural pigments used and the preparation of those pigments for painting.

The flood in Florence (see below) occurred between planning and realization of the meeting, and no doubt lent a sense of urgency to those pushing through the bureaucracy, in order to ensure administrative action. But the influence of the meeting was limited, both because the participants were not practicing paper conservators and because they did not participate in practical workshops, only studio visits and demonstrations.

Fig. 1 Cover of the programme of the ‘Meeting of Experts on the Conservation and Restora-tion of Oriental Paintings in Japan’.

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The flood in Florence The flooding of the Arno River in Florence in 1966 caused serious damage to a huge amount of historical documents and books. As part of the salvage operation, many specialists and non-specialists came together in Florence. Following the salvage, they found a large number of items demanded urgent conservation treatment. This situation was a driving force in the development of a new phased approach to conservation work, necessary when faced with a large number of objects requiring treatment, rather than single items, and with limited time available.

Alongside the development of this innovative concept of phased conservation, established by Peter Waters, a further significant development brought about due to this disaster was the widespread adoption of Japanese papers and techniques for the conservation of European paper objects. No doubt the donation of a quantity of Japanese papers by the Association of Conservation Studios of Japanese Paintings and Documents was welcomed by the experts handling the damaged books and documents at the conservation site, and the value of this material for conservation treatment was quickly recognized. At that time, however, ‘the acidic paper problem’ was not recognized within Japanese conservation and did not become widely known in Japan until the 1980s. So, Japanese paper was supplied without determining whether these papers were pH neutral or alkaline. The European conservators who joined the salvage team in Florence, on the other hand, were very familiar with the problems caused by acidic paper.

The use of Japanese conservation techniques on Western art by Keiko KeyesThe name of Keiko Keyes is easily found when researching the topic of Japanese conservation on the Internet. Some of the following has been summarised from the Abbey Newsletter’s obituary of Keiko Keyes.1

In the same year as the flood, December 1966, Keiko Mizushima Keyes travelled to Japan and studied for ten months at the Oka Conservation Laboratory where Iwataro Oka II was the Director, and President of the Mounter’s Association for National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties. She then returned to the United States and applied traditional Japanese restoration techniques to Western works of art.

During the next nine years, Mrs Keyes researched Japanese woodblock prints with Dr Roger Keyes, her husband, and wrote books and articles on the conservation techniques that she had acquired over the years. In 1975, Mrs Keyes became an independent conservator of works of art on paper. She taught in the Cooperstown Graduate Program, led seminars, delivered lectures and continued to publish on paper conservation. In 1988, Mrs Keyes made a presentation entitled ‘Japanese Print Conservation: An Overview’ at the IIC Congress in Kyoto (Fig. 2).2 I was in the audience and remember being impressed by her poise and control as she showed slides on two screens, and signed with both hands, raising her left hand for the left screen and her right hand for the right screen. A noteworthy point of her presentation was her discussion of the conservation of ukiyo-e prints. Traditional conservation studios for paintings and historical documents in Japan would usually treat only paintings of ukiyo-e, not prints. Therefore her presentation gave Japanese conservators, as well as the audience from abroad, a fresh perspective.

Mrs Keyes died in November 1989, one year after that IIC Kyoto Conference. She was the first teacher of practical Japanese techniques who conveyed these methods to Western conservators for the treatment of their collections, and she had a wide influence on Western paper conservation.

1 Robert Futernick, ‘Obituary: Keiko Keyes’, The Abbey Newsletter 14, no. 1 (1990), http://cool.conservation-us.org/byorg/abbey/an/an14/an14-1/an14-108.html.

2 Keiko Mizushima Keyes, ‘Japanese Print Conservation: An Overview’, in The conservation of Far Eastern art: preprints of the contributions to the Kyoto Congress, 19–23 September 1988, (London: The International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, 1988), 30-36

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Records of Japanese techniques 1 Tokyo National InstituteIn 1977, Conservation Science in ‘Hyōgu’, Report of Special Study, Scientific Study on the Conservation and Restoration of Painting and Calligraphy Scrolls in Japan was published by the Tokyo National Research Institute of Cultural Properties (TNRIP), Tokyo. Its editor was Kyotaro Nishikawa, director of the Department of Restoration Techniques of the Institute (Fig. 3).

It contained both a precise record of the process of mounting new hanging scrolls and a description of the process of restoring damaged historic hanging scrolls, with illustrations drawn by Katsuhiko Masuda. It also contained a chapter on ‘Documents on the Process of Hyōgu or Mounting Techniques’, which outlined necessary tools and materials, as well as the general procedure of mounting and mounting following restoration.

This chapter was later translated into English by a Canadian group. The translation was a reflection of broad demand by the Canadian group as well as by conservators of other countries for details of the Japanese techniques

Fig. 3 Contents of Conservation Science in ‘Hyōgu’, Report of Special Study, Scientific Study on the Conservation and Restoration of Painting and Calligraphy Scrolls in Japan.

Fig. 2 Cover of the preprints of the IIC Kyoto Congress on the Conservation of Far Eastern Art.

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In 1979 the ‘International Symposium on the Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Property: Conservation of Far Eastern Art Objects’ was organized by the TNRICP. It included a presentation by Iwataro Oka under the title of ‘Rebacking and patching of silk paintings’. The proceedings were published in English in 1980 (Fig. 4). 3

2 Masako KoyanoIn 1979, Japanese Scroll Paintings: A Handbook of Mounting Techniques, by Masako Koyano, was published by the Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (Fig. 5). The book was based on the thesis submitted in 1968 when she was a student at the Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. The time lag between the thesis and the book is 11 years. No doubt the demand for information about Japanese hyōgu had increased year on year for 11 years, resulting in the publication of the book.

Ms Koyano said in her introduction:

The primary function of the book is to introduce conservators in some detail to the ideas and methods of the oriental painting restorer. In addition, collectors and curators may appreciate both the notes on different styles of mounting and some information on how a scroll is put together.

Furthermore, she intended to provide conservators in the West with a detailed guide on the tools, materials and methods of scroll mounting, which would be a valuable help in the cross-fertilization of ideas within the conservation profession.

Practical courses held by TNRICP and ICCROMIn 1976, while participating in the mural painting course held by ICCROM, I demonstrated the process of hyōgu. The following year, I was sent to Italy as a consultant for the UNESCO mission to the Oriental Art Museum of Ca’Pesaro, Venice, and Istituto Centrale del Restauro, Rome. At the Museum I made a survey of Japanese fine arts damaged by long-term display; at the Istituto I demonstrated the whole process of making folding screens.

The process was as follows: construction of wooden framework, making the base by pasting layers of Japanese paper, joining panels in the Japanese way, gilding the front side of the paper, lining a silk border with Japanese

Fig. 4 Cover of International Symposium on the Conservation and Res-toration of Cultural Property: Conservation of Far Eastern Art Objects.

3 Iwataro Oka, ‘Rebacking and Patching of Silk Paintings’, in International Symposium on the Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Property: Conservation of Far Eastern Art Objects. Tokyo, November 26–29, 1979 (Tokyo: Tokyo National Research Institute of Cultural Property, 1980), 63–68.

Fig. 5 Cover of Japanese Scroll Paintings: A Handbook of Mounting Techniques.

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paper and attaching the wooden frames to make up a four-panel folding screen. An audience of around 20 watched this demonstration (Fig. 6).

From 1981 to 1982 I was working as a UNESCO expert, conducting the course on ‘Restoration of Oriental Art on Paper’ (two courses in Venice, four courses at ICCROM in Rome, and one in the Museum Support Center, Washington, DC) (Fig. 7). The course was intended to introduce some hyōgu techniques to non-Japanese participants, to provide ideas, techniques, materials and tools applicable to the conservation treatment of paper based objects in the participants’ countries of origin. Because the course was a practical session, each had a limit of five participants, and, in order to allow as many participants as possible, each course was for only three weeks, covering the basic steps of the practice. The short duration allowed for the repetition of the course, as mentioned above.

During the course I did not demonstrate the process of restoring Japanese paintings, because the demonstration of that alone would have taken up the three weeks, allowing no time for participants to join in practice. I wished for participants to gain practical experience during the short course and so selected only two techniques, that is, lining on paper and silk and flattening the lined objects using the karibari technique. An addition to this was making karibari, which is now very popular in Western paper conservation laboratories.

Why did I select only two techniques for the practical course? One of the reasons was, as mentioned before, because the number of days for practice was limited. A second reason was because, when I visited paper conservation laboratories in Europe, I was shown large machine presses and received an explanation of flattening by pressure. A large object requires great pressure for flattening. Opposing methods of flattening are used in Europe versus East Asia, in Europe it is achieved by pressure and in East Asia by tension. At that time, I believed that the most effective technique was flattening under tension, using karibari flattening boards.

Since 1982 I have taught courses at the National Library of Australia in Canberra in 1983, at the Conservation Analytical Laboratory of the Smithsonian Institution in 1984, again at ICCROM in Rome in 1985, at the Laboratorio di Restauro della Provincia di Viterbo, Italy in 1987, at the Bangkok National Museum Conservation Department, Thailand in 1990, in Geneva, Switzerland in 1990, again in Venice, Italy in 1990 and in Vienna, Austria in 1991.

Fig. 7 Discussing paste during the course on ‘Restoration of Oriental Art on Paper’.

Fig. 6 The author presenting at the Istituto Centrale del Restauro, Rome.

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After the workshops held in Rome and other cities, where the number of participants was limited, requests by Western conservators to undergo training in Japanese conservation at the Tokyo National Institute as well as in private studios in Japan increased. Some participants have been undergoing training in private studios for more than 10 years (for example, Paul Wills and Philip Meredith from the UK, and Jacki Elgar and Andrew Hare from the USA).

Since 1992, ICCROM and TNRIP have organized the international course on Japanese Paper Conservation (JPC) in Tokyo and Kyoto (Fig. 8). During the first period, from 1992 to 1997, six courses were designed by me and conducted along with Kazunori Oryu. These were attended by 77 participants from 42 countries worldwide. The courses have generated great interest in the paper conservation community, notably because they offer a unique opportunity to discuss the differences and similarities between the Japanese paper conservation tradition and approaches adopted in other parts of the world.

The JPC seminar in 1998 was organized by TNRIP and ICCROM in Kyoto from 14 to 19 December in order to follow up the JPC course, inviting 14 former JPC participants to assess the outcome of the courses and to explore how they have applied the acquired skills in their own work. During the seminar, a visit was arranged to Mino City, Gifu Prefecture (where paper has been made since the eighth century), giving the participants an opportunity to observe and experience papermaking traditions in Japan. A final session was dedicated to assessing jointly what had proven to be the most valuable elements of the course, as well as exploring areas for future development. The course structure and contents, as well as the didactic materials and follow-up activities, were discussed.

The proceedings of the seminar were published the following year in order to share its results and to introduce the works carried out by the former participants to paper conservators elsewhere, as well as other JPC participants.4

Special journal issues on Japanese paper conservationIn 1978, The Paper Conservator published a special issue focusing on manual techniques of paper repair. In this issue Orla McMullen wrote an article

Fig. 8 At the opening of the international course on Japanese Paper Conservation (JPC).

4 Tokyo National Research Institute of Cultural Properties. Spiderwebs and Wallpapers: International Applications of the Japanese Tradition in Paper Conservation: Proceedings of the International Seminar on Japanese Paper Conservation, 14–20 December 1998. Tokyo: Tokyo National Research Institute of Cultural Properties, 2000.

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entitled, ‘Paper Repair on Older Printed Books’, and described three types of Japanese paper, tengujo, kinugawa, and kawanaka, as repair materials.5

In 1984, I wrote an article entitled ‘Vegetable Adhesives Used in the Workshop of the Hyōgushi, Restorer and Mounter of Japanese Paintings’, for the preprints of the IIC Paris Congress.6 In it I described the three major types of vegetable adhesives used by the mounter of Japanese paintings (Hyōgushi): wheat-starch paste (both freshly cooked and aged paste), seaweed-paste (funori) and konnyaku paste (made from the tuber of Amorphophallus konjac). Konnyaku solution was historically used to strengthen paper for clothing. After the paper has had an application of konnyaku, the solution is hardened by an alkaline solution such as ash, lye, calcium hydroxide or bittern, which is a by-product of salt-making from sea water. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the conference.

In 1985, The Paper Conservator produced another special issue, ‘Hyōgu: The Japanese Tradition in Picture Conservation’, edited by Paul Wills, who had studied the conservation of Japanese paintings and documents at Usami studio in Kyoto (Fig. 9).7 And in 2006, The Paper Conservator again published a themed issue focusing on Japanese paper conservation, with an editorial by Jane Eagan and Philip Meredith.8

A new kind of paper shopIn an important event in 1984, Naoaki Sakamoto opened a small paper shop in Tokyo, which became a centre for the supply of Japanese papers to the conservation profession (Fig. 10). He decided to deal in only the highest quality papers made from pure bast fibre, mainly kōzo, gampi and mitsumata, and he began to export to foreign countries where Japanese papers were sought for conservation purposes.

He was, and still is, a private book publisher, and was aware that handmade paper is an important commodity. Besides publishing, he had for many years considered setting up a paper shop. The first visiting card I received from him was printed with his name and affiliation, Tairiku-no-taiwasha Publishing, which literally means ‘communication between continents’. In 1978–79, he met Silvia Brunetti from France, who told him how difficult it was to obtain good quality Japanese paper in Europe. Sakamoto started to prepare for the opening of his paper shop in 1982–83, visiting approximately

Fig. 9 Cover of The Paper Conservator 9.

5 Orla McMullen, ‘Paper Repair on Older Printed Books’, in ‘Manual Techniques of Paper Repair’, special issue, The Paper Conservator 3 (1978): 18–27.

6 Katsuhiko Masuda, ‘Vegetable Adhesives Used in the Workshop of the Hyōgushi, Restorer and Mounter of Japanese Paintings’, in ‘Preprints of the Contributions to the Paris Congress, 2-8 September 1984. Adhesives and Consolidants’, special issue, Studies in Conservation 29, no. 1 (1984): 127–128.

7 Paul Wills, ‘Far Eastern Pictorial Art: Form and Function’, in Paul Wills and Dr Nicholas Pickwoad, eds., ‘Hyōgu: The Japanese Tradition in Picture Conservation’, special issue, The Paper Conservator 9, (1985): 5–12; Takemistu Oba, ‘Kakemono: The Japanese Hanging Scroll’, Paper Conservator 9, 13–23; John Winter, ‘Paints and Supports in Far Eastern Pictorial Art’, Paper Conservator 9, 24–31; Katsuhiko Masuda, ‘Japanese Paper and hyōgu’, Paper Conservator 9, 32–41; Andrew Thompson, ‘Japanese Brushes for Conservation’, Paper Conservator 9, 42–53; Pauline Webber and Merryl Huxtable, ‘Karibari: The Japanese Drying Board’, Paper Conservator 9, 54–60; and Wendy Bennett, ‘Conservation and Mounting of Eastern Pictorial Art: A Bibliography of Western Language Publications’, Paper Conservator 9, 61–63.

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15 handmade papermakers. He developed good relationships with several papermakers, who agreed to produce papers to Sakamoto’s specification.

When he opened his shop in 1984, instead of using traditional paper names he used symbol marks to indicate fibre content, cooking additives, drying method and other aspects of the manufacture. K to denote kōzo, G for gampi, M for mitsumata, W for wood ash, S for sodium carbonate, L for lime, S for heated stainless-steel board, W for wood board, R for sheets formed by machine, and also included pH values and a digit roughly corresponding to thickness. This naming system was an innovation in the world of Japanese paper at that time.

Sakamoto had the opportunity of joining the 13th meeting of the AIC in 1985, where he sold samples of the papers available at his shop in Tokyo.

A new direction for the courses held by TNRICPSince 1998, Kazunori Oryu had helped with several courses of Japanese paper conservation held in Paris and Munich.

TNRICP started a project concerning damaged Japanese paintings held in overseas museums and galleries, allowing for their restoration to be financed by the Japanese government. With this project, the restoration work was done in Japanese studios during the first stage. From 2007, TNRICP set up overseas workshops based on traditional Japanese restoration techniques, where Japanese conservators worked in front of participants of the workshop in order to show how to handle the scrolls and folding screens, to show the raw materials used in the conservation of Japanese paintings and the actual procedures of the restoration process (Fig. 11).

Every year ‘Workshops on the Conservation and Restoration of Japanese Art Works on Paper and Silk’ are held in Cologne and Berlin, Germany, with support of the Asian Art Museum, National Museums in Berlin and the German Museum of Technology. Because Japanese paper is now used for the restoration of cultural properties outside of Japan, the purpose of these workshops is to contribute to the conservation and utilization of cultural properties both in and out of Japan.

8 Katsuhiko Masuda, ‘Reflections on the Spread of Japanese Paper and Conservation Techniques’, The Paper Conservator 30 (2006): 7–9; Sandra Grantham, ‘Some Painting Techniques and Materials used in Japan and the Far East’, Paper Conservator 30, 11–24; T.K. McClintock, ‘Japanese Folding Screens in a Western Collection: Notes on a Representative Treatment’, Paper Conservator 30, 25–42; Pauline Webber, ‘East and West: A Unified Approach to Paper Conservation’, Paper Conservator 30, 43-56; Shiho Sasaki, ‘Soura uchikae: Replacement of the Final Backing Layer in Hanging Scrolls’, Paper Conservator 30, 57–64; Andrew Thompson, ‘Japanese Tools for Conservation’, Paper Conservator 30, 65–72; Andrew Hare, ‘Guidelines for the Care of East Asian Paintings: Display, Storage and Handling’, Paper Conservator 30, 73–92; Huan-Shen Lin, ‘Preservation and Conservation of Traditional Antique Chinese Painting and Calligraphy seen through Observation and Examination of Works of Art’, Paper Conservator 30, 93–7; Jacki Elgar, ‘Tibetan thang kas: An Overview’, Paper Conservator 30, 99–114; Chi-sun Park, ‘Korean Traditional Mounting (janghwang)’, Paper Conservator 30, 115–22; and Robert Minte, ‘Conservation of Asian Art—A Select Bibliography of Western Language Publications’, Paper Conservator 30, 123–31.

Fig. 10 The front of the ‘Paper Nao’ shop.

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Examination of Japanese paperAs Japanese paper has become known widely as a convenient and safe material in the conservation field, conservators such as Sue Beauman Murphy, Siegfried Rempel, Kitty Nicholson, Susan Page, and Timothy D. Barrett have themselves examined Japanese paper from the viewpoint of conservation.9

New techniques based on Japanese traditions 1 Friction mounting by Keiko KeyesAs Keiko Keyes wrote in several articles,10 the friction-mounting technique was derived from the Japanese mounter’s method. She modified the origin of the technique, which is a kind of stretch mounting, to produce her own technique using pressure and Japanese paper. It is very effective for conserving delicate embossed images, a typical characteristic of ukiyo-e prints, which need to be flattened. Too much pressure will cause damage to the embossed image.

2 Micro-dot pasting methodAn artisan, precious bag maker for tea bowls, uses micro-dot pasting. He adheres two layers of textile with fluffed paper inbetween. The fibre top of the fluffed paper is pasted to the reverse side of two textiles. Then the paper holds two layers of textile by pasting the fibre top. It provides the pasted textile with flexible and soft features.

When I discovered this, I realized that this technique could be used for conservation work on water-sensitive objects, because very little paste is used. I began to adopt this technique for treating the fragments of fourth-century paper in China. I also taught the technique at the Japanese paper conservation course, but it did not spread.

In 2002, at the IIC Baltimore Congress, I presented a poster entitled ‘Micro Dot Adhering for Paper Conservation and Offset Application of Paste’. I made a stamp with many tiny prongs. The top of the prongs transfer a small amount of paste onto the paper. The advantages of the technique is that the pasted area provides no contraction and it is easily removable because the total area of adherence consists of individually adhered points. The micro-dot method is ideally suited for use when hinging prints and drawings.

9 Sue Beauman Murphy and Siegfried Rempel, ‘A Study of the Quality of Japanese Papers used in Conservation’, The Book and Paper Group Annual 4 (1985); Nicholson and Page, ‘Machine Made Oriental Papers in Western Paper Conservation’, The Book and Paper Group Annual 7 (1988); and Timothy D. Barrett, ed. ‘Early European Papers/Contemporary Conservation Papers, a Report on Research Undertaken from Fall 1984 through Fall 1987’, special issue, The Paper Conservator 13 (1989).

10 Keiko Keyes, ‘The Use of Friction Mounting as an Aid to Pressing Works on Paper’, The Book and Paper Group Annual 3 (1984); Keyes, ‘A Manual Method of Paper Pulp Application in the Conservation of Works of Art on Paper’, The Paper Conservator 1 (1976): 33–34; and Keyes, ‘The Unique Qualities of Paper as an Artifact in Conservation Treatment’, The Paper Conservator 3 (1978): 4–8.

Fig. 11 Demonstration during a TNRICP overseas Japanese paper conservation workshop.

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ConclusionLooking at the techniques of lining and flattening, the Japanese methods are very simple yet rewarding, resulting in flexible layers. That is why it is adaptable worldwide and applicable to a variety of works. I gave this paper the title ‘The flow of materials and techniques’. The flow has occurred because of the enthusiasm of Western conservators, not because of pushing from Japan.

Western conservators appreciate the utility of Japanese papers and techniques, and value them as materials and methods. But these papers and techniques are the products of a culture of dealing with and treating cultural objects. The reason why many handmade papers are still made by people in East Asia is that the papers and the methods of their manufacture have a cultural value of their own. East Asian peoples’ love for handmade paper comes not only from its utility but also from its features, its beauty.

AbstractThis paper will narrate a story about the movement of Eastern techniques and materials to the Western world of paper conservation, through a number of events over the past fifty years. Before 1960, some Eastern mounters had worked in Europe and the USA. Although they repaired and remounted Eastern paintings using traditional techniques and materials, their work did not receive a great deal of attention from Western paper conservators. The tipping point in this narrative, when techniques and materials passed into new territory and broadened there, was the Florence flood of 1966. This disaster caused damage to a huge number of paper documents, leading Western paper conservators to reconsider the systematic processing of individual works in conservation. This was the motivator for Peter Waters to conceive a new approach for mass conservation treatment, resulting in the idea of ‘phased conservation’. At the same time, conservators looked East and sought new materials and techniques for their works. In 1966, Ms Keiko Keyes studied Japanese methods and subsequently contributed to a broadened use of Eastern techniques and materials through many lectures and publications. Increased demand for the techniques led the author, Katsuhiko Masuda of the Japanese Institute, to conduct the course ‘Restoration of Oriental Art on Paper’ at ICCROM, Rome, in 1981–2. In 1985, a special issue of The Paper Conservator was published, entitled ‘Hyōgu: The Japanese Tradition in Paper Conservation’, which further disseminated Eastern conservation techniques to the Western world. In 1992, a Japanese paper conservation course was started at the Tokyo National and continues to the present day. During this period, paper dealers who had previously manufactured paper mainly for decorating packages and home craft work started to produce Japanese handmade paper for conservation. Along with this paper, Eastern materials and tools were introduced to Western countries and Japanese conservation techniques were applied and modified in order to meet the needs of Western objects.

Contact [email protected]

BiographyKatsuhiko Masuda was born in Tokyo in 1942. He gained a BA in Agriculture at the Tokyo University of Education in 1965 and then worked at the Endo Tokusuiken Studio on the conservation of Japanese historical paintings and documents from 1965 to 1973. From 1973 to 2000, he worked at the Department of Restoration Technique, Tokyo National Research Institute of Cultural Properties. Since 2000, he has been head of study and teaching for the conservation of paper, paintings and documents at the Showa Women’s University. Since 1992, Masuda has conducted seven Japanese paper conservation courses in collaboration with ICCROM. His main interests lie in conservation techniques and the history of paper making and traditional mountings. His study of ancient paper-making in Japan, Technical study on paper making in the Nara Period (7-8th century) (II). Hammering for finishing paper, clarified the characteristics of ancient paper that could not be reproduced by present day so-called traditional techniques, and he has shown the importance of fibre fibrillation and hammering in Japanese ancient paper production, aiding selection of appropriate paper for treatment of ancient paper documents. He has written on semi-dry pasting for hinging and minor repairing, ‘Micro dot adhering for paper conservation and offset application of paste’ (poster, IIC Baltimore congress, 2002), and he is currently studying decorative techniques of eleventh and twelfth-century papers used for calligraphy. He is also investigating technical developments in the history of Japanese handmade paper.

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