painting
Expert techniques for safely handling delicate paper and silk
Paintings come in a variety of forms, including hanging scrolls, scrolls, folding screens, and booklets. In any case, the works themselves are made of paper or silk, so unless they are carefully stored, it will be difficult to preserve them safely for a long time. To prevent further deterioration of the works, light, temperature, and humidity are carefully controlled when exhibiting them, and similarly, when storing them, they are handled with care to prevent deterioration of color and materials, and damage from insects and mold.
Scrolls, such as hanging scrolls and scrolls, require particular skill to handle. If they are wound too tightly or too thinly, the main paper (the work itself, excluding the mounting) will be damaged, so the Tokyo National Museum often makes thicker scroll cores for storage. When handling scrolls that have been repeatedly unwound and viewed, you may come into contact with damaged areas.
When conducting research or lending, the researcher in charge always checks the entire item, but with items in other museums' collections, it's difficult to tell where there is damage or other areas that require attention. When unfolding a scroll with your left hand, you have to touch the back of the paper to check by feel for creases, otherwise the damage or breakage will be exacerbated. "After handling it about 20,000 times," he says, you'll learn how to handle the paper according to its condition.
Sensitivity in the hands and fingers is important, so they are checked with bare hands. When unfolding, the width should be about shoulder width, and lifting it as is is in danger of bending, so this is a no-no. First, roll it up on both sides and hold it with both hands. With older works, there are many dangers, such as paint floating or the silk deteriorating. Therefore, they are checked using a flashlight (each researcher is equipped with their own flashlight).
In the case of hanging scrolls, the safest way to hang them is by hand in the tokonoma alcove of an ordinary home, but this is not possible in the exhibition rooms of art galleries and museums, where the ceilings are high. In such cases, tools such as a hook to hang them from the ceiling (Tokyo National Museum has original metal fittings for connecting them) or a notch to hook the hanging cord and lift them up are used. The end of the long notch is specially designed to make it easy to hang and remove, and when a new one is made, the curve of the previous notch is faithfully reproduced.
The exhibition is left to the sense of the person in charge, but the position is decided with various considerations, such as the balance when looking at the entire exhibition room, and making sure the work does not overlap the glass joints. The "height" of the work is also an important factor. Since the main building's comprehensive cultural exhibition is not often crowded, the center of the painting is hung at a height that is easy to see from the eye level of a person of average build when standing.
However, in the case of special exhibitions where crowds are inevitable, the works are initially displayed at their normal height, and then when the crowds start to gather, the display hardware is adjusted to raise all the works a few centimeters at once, so that the works can be seen even from behind the crowded crowd.
Do not unfold the entire shaft before hanging it freely.
If the position where you are attaching it is low, it is safest to use your hands. When using a notch, check the strength of the notch and stretch the shaft while stretching the notch upwards. If you attach it freely before it opens up to the main paper, the main paper will be safe even if an accident occurs, so do not stretch it too much. Once it is securely attached freely, use both hands to spread the shaft.
Avoid glass seams and position for easy viewing.
How you display the exhibits in an exhibition room is a testament to your sense of style. In a home alcove, the height is determined based on the eye level of those sitting and viewing, but in art galleries and museums, the height is determined based on the gaze of those looking at the exhibits from a distance, whether they are close to the exhibits or not. In the case of special exhibitions, which are expected to be crowded and popular from the start, the exhibits are set at a higher position.
swords
Care to keep it shiny for hundreds of years
When you think about it, it's amazing that swords from hundreds of years ago can remain in such good condition. This means that someone has been taking care of them for a long time. The Tokyo National Museum manages approximately 900 swords from the Heian period to modern times.
Swords are usually maintained regularly to prevent rust and are stored in a storage facility with complete temperature and humidity control. During maintenance, the condition is checked and if there are no problems, the sword is returned to the storage facility, and if repairs are required, the sword is sent to the polisher and scabbard maker. However, even if rust is found, it is so minute that it is barely visible to the naked eye because the sword is well maintained on a daily basis.
To prevent wear as much as possible, only the affected area is polished carefully. The sharpening method is also respected as an element that constitutes a cultural asset, and efforts are made to maintain the current state so that the sharpening techniques of the Edo and Meiji eras are not lost.
Even so, appreciating swords is more difficult than "calligraphy." When I asked the researcher what the highlights are, and it's hard for an amateur to understand, he replied, "Of course, there is a functional meaning, but perhaps it's best to look at the curvature of the blade and the blade pattern as abstract art." Wow, that was an eye-opener!
After removing the sheath and handle, check the blade.
When inspecting, the plain wooden sheath and handle are removed. The nails holding the handle in place are removed, and the blade is removed by hitting the wrist while holding the handle. If the hit is too strong, the blade will pop out. In period dramas, there are scenes in which the blade is maintained by applying powder, but at Tokyo National Museum, this is avoided as much as possible because the components in the powder can dull the sharpening.
The oil applied to the blade can be removed with a glasses cloth.
When storing the sword, the blade is coated with clove oil and placed in a sheath made of magnolia. This allows the oil to act as a buffer and air barrier between the sheath and the blade, preventing rust. When inspecting the blade, the inspector wears a mask to prevent any spit from flying, wipes off the oil with tissue or eyeglass cloth, and then inspects the blade.
ceramics
The box, wrapping, and origin are all part of the value.
The display cases are lined with tea bowls, water jars, and other works of art themselves, but in the case of Japanese art, the boxes, wrappings, and accompanying letters that can themselves be called "antiques" can also be of great value, as they provide proof of who once owned an item that has stood the test of time.
Tea caddies are particularly valued among tea ceremony utensils, and it is not uncommon for the original owner to have a box made for them, which was then replaced by an outer box for storage by a subsequent owner, and so on, creating a Matryoshka doll-like structure.You might laugh at this and think it's an exaggeration, but if you were told that it was a masterpiece of Chinese art that had passed through the hands of such great rulers as Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and that the paper covering the lid was handwritten by Rikyu himself, you might feel like making an outer box for it.
Although ceramics are not as affected by temperature and humidity as swords or paintings, they are vulnerable to physical shocks, so all display cases are equipped with seismic isolation systems to ensure safety. In the case of tea utensils, the ideal display would be one that is as close as possible to the way they would be displayed in a tea room.
For now, the end of Room 4 of the main building, "The Art of Tea," has been designed to look like a tokonoma alcove, and the exhibits will be changed four times a year, with the aim of creating an atmosphere that allows visitors to enjoy the exhibits by carefully arranging them in a creative way while respecting the seasonal feel.
The tea caddy is as good as Christo's packaging art.
The "order" of a venerable tea caddy looks something like this. There is an outer box, which contains a box containing the main body, a box containing the tray for the tea caddy, a box containing replacement lids, and other accessories. There may also be several different "dressing" covers for wrapping the tea caddy. Each owner has customised the cover to suit their own taste.
I don't use gloves, but I do use sandbags.
To prevent accidents when exhibiting, the items are transported to the exhibition room in their boxes, and then opened and displayed on the spot. Even in earthquake-resistant cases, if the item is tall and has an unstable center of gravity, such as a vase, sandbags are placed inside to prevent it from falling in the event of an earthquake. Items are generally handled with bare hands to prevent them from slipping and falling.
