Tue, Aug 9, 2022
Restoration work of a fusuma-e (partition painting) owned by Rinka-in — a subtemple of Myoshin-ji temple in Kyoto — will soon start at Kyoto National Museum’s Conservation Center for Cultural Properties. Eight of 20 panels of the partition will be repaired in the next four years.
Titled “Landscape,” the fusuma-e is said to have been painted by Hasegawa Tohaku (1539-1610) — a master painter of the Azuchi-Momoyama period — when Wakizaka Yasuharu (1554-1626) — a vassal of feudal lord and Kanpaku (chief Imperial minister) Toyotomi Hideyoshi — founded the Rinka-in in 1599. The painting was designated by the Japanese government as an important cultural property in 1962.
The partition was well kept at the temple but had deteriorated over time — the painting has cracks and ink is peeling off here and there — and was entrusted to the Kyoto National Museum in 2017.
The painting depicts the seasonal changes in Japan, and the repair work will start with the spring-summer portion (four panels; each about 180 x 160 centimeters in size) of the painting. The haze of spring is depicted with gold paint, the mountains and rocks with black ink.
According to Yuya Fukushi, a curator with the Kyoto National Museum specializing in pre-modern Japanese paintings, Tohaku’s masterpiece was produced when the artist was in his sixties. He thinks “the painting will last another century when the repair work is done.” The repair work will be conducted by conservators from Shubi, a repair shop based in Kyoto. The conservators will take steps to prevent further peeling and exchange old backing paper with a new one.
The repair work is financially supported by the Tsumugu Project, a joint effort of Japan’s Cultural Affairs agency, Imperial Household Agency and national daily newspaper The Yomiuri Shimbun (headquartered in Tokyo) to help conserve the nation’s artistic treasures.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun and other sources)
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