Wed, Jul 19, 2023
Oka Bokkodo's endless challenge in Kyoto
In central Kyoto, on a street lined with buildings clad in traditional lattice work and topped with tiled roofs, discreetly sits a remarkable and vibrant art conservation studio. Founded in this location in 1894, Oka Bokkodo started business mounting scroll paintings, gradually expanding its activities and adding the restoration of artworks since after World War II. Today, Oka Bokkodo is in charge of the conservation of designated national treasures and important cultural properties entrusted by national museums, temples, shrines and private collectors.
Specialised in painting and calligraphy on paper and silk (and the occasional partition-painting), the company now employs thirty conservators that work from the historical studio, a sizable two-storied building nestled in the tight urban environment of the ancient capital, as well as its conservation centre located inside the Kyoto National Museum. For Oka Iwataro IV, PhD, the current Representative Director of Oka Bokkodo, conservation work is comparable to ekiden, a round-trip relay marathon: the first part of the race is the restoration and the return route consists in remounting the work with traditional materials and techniques. In order to complete this distinctive ekiden, Oka Bokkodo operates a fascinating marriage between tradition and modernity, using time-honoured methods and materials in combination with today’s conservation technology.
Indeed, as Dr. Oka explains, his grandfather, father and himself have each invented some new techniques. Consider silk, one of the two main supports for traditional Japanese paintings: to restore losses in the material, one previously had to hunt for old silk in antique markets and break down the fabric to make it usable in the restoration studio. This time-consuming and impractical step could be bypassed thanks to his father’s invention, about fifty years ago, of man-made aged silk, or irradiated silk (radiation weakens and ages the fabric). This was a great step, but Dr. Oka topped it off with the invention of a filling technique using digital imagery and cutting machines. The artwork is shot in high resolution so that a computer can pick up the exact (and often intricate) outline of the losses. A machine can then create the shape needed for the fillings, cutting the silk with the utmost precision, thus achieving an incredibly precise puzzle. For Dr. Oka, to be worthy “a new invention has to be of higher quality than what can be achieved by hand, and faster.”
New materials are also sometimes used, as with the case of a Heian period mandala whose very large size — over five square meters — meant that it was very heavy. Such works usually have at their bottom a roll made of wood but by using a roll made of carbon composite, the studio was able to decrease its weight by fifty percent, an option that was much lighter and therefore safer for the preservation of the work. To find this new material, Oka Bokkodo worked with a carbon composite maker from Fukui Prefecture; indeed Dr. Oka is always looking for new techniques, new materials and new companies to collaborate with.
Dr. Oka is also ensuring traditional techniques, materials and knowledge survive. As a board member of The Association for Successors of Traditional Preservation Techniques, he helps in organising yearly meetings during which craftspeople and suppliers active in disparate fields such as the making of paper, brushes, lacquer or wooden boxes can gather, exchange and feel encouraged. Specialising in very different productions, living separately from one another, sometimes in rural areas, they nevertheless all share the same difficulties: lack of work, low wages, difficulty in educating a new generation or finding materials and tools, etc. The association aims to facilitate interactions as well encourage pride in their work: it is meaningful to explain to a kozo plant grower that paper, the fruit of his labour, now lines artworks as important as national treasures. While Dr. Oka notices a promising new movement, he points out that the situation is still very serious and needs much attention.
Back in the home studio, restorers are being trained. Upon entering Oka Bokkodo with a degree in Japanese painting, art history or conservation, eight to ten years will be needed to be considered a professional equipped with general knowledge of the different materials, techniques and formats (scrolls, books, sliding doors, etc.), before specialising in one specific field and pursuing what is really a lifelong learning process.
In parallel to its activities in Japan, Dr. Oka also participates in an ongoing project initiated with the British Museum over ten years ago. Dr. Oka goes to London regularly and sends conservators two or three times a year for a period of about three years to work on paintings in the museum’s collection. This provides an excellent opportunity for young conservators to encounter the extensive and diverse facilities of the British Museum, as well as to educate their counterparts in the techniques, treatments and materials employed in Japan.
The particular story of an ongoing restoration project illuminates both the intricacies and lengthy timescales of Oka Bokkodo activities. Among the many noteworthy cultural assets the company has been tasked to restore is a group of Fan-shaped Booklets of the Lotus Sutra (Senmen Hokekyo) owned by Shitenno-ji, a temple in Osaka. Small in size but great in significance, these exquisite works from the late Heian period (12th century) feature beautifully painted decoration and have been listed as national treasures. Rather stirringly, Dr. Oka remembers hearing his father and grandfather discussing them when he was a child; the precious booklets already required attention then and with today’s techniques he is able to do what his predecessors could not do. The natural pigments and in particular mica (a shimmering powder made of ground minerals) are not stable anymore and need consolidating. Animal glue is used and painstakingly applied on each separate page, a time-consuming process in its second year. Three more years will be required to complete the project of restoring this five-volume set.
Profile
Art Historian
Sophie RICHARD
Born in Provence and educated at the Ecole du Louvre and at the Sorbonne in Paris, Sophie worked in the art world in New York before moving to London where she now resides. She has been a regular visitor to Japan for the last 15 years. Passionate about Japanese arts and culture, she set out to explore the country’s many museums. In the course of her research she has visited close to 200 venues across the country. Her articles on Japanese museums have appeared in the United Kingdom, the United States and Japan. Her first book on the subject was published in 2014 and then translated into Japanese. Her new book “The art lover’s guide to Japanese museums” was published in July 2019. In 2015, Sophie received the Commissioner’s Award from the Agency of Cultural Affairs in Tokyo, in recognition for her work in bringing Japanese culture to a wider audience. (Photo©Frederic Aranda)
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