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Conservators Preserving and Restoring Japanese Cultural Properties 2

Morio Sayuri, object conservator

The things that surround us in our daily lives gradually become worn and sometimes damaged with the passage of time. The same is true for exhibits and objects shown in galleries and museums.No doubt you have seen objects from two hundred, three hundred, or even several thousand years ago. It’s really quite marvellous that they remain to this day. There are so many objects that would no longer exist if they had simply been put away and left un attended. The professionals engaged in restoring and repairing objects so that they will survive into the future are known as conservators, and “conserve” here means “preserve” and “protect.” In Japan, several…

Conservators Preserving and Restoring Japanese Cultural Properties 1

Morio Sayuri, object conservator

The things that surround us in our daily lives gradually become worn and sometimes damaged with the passage of time. The same is true for exhibits and objects shown in galleries and museums.No doubt you have seen objects from two hundred, three hundred, or even several thousand years ago. It’s really quite marvellous that they remain to this day. There are so many objects that would no longer exist if they had simply been put away and left un attended. The professionals engaged in restoring and repairing objects so that they will survive into the future are known as conservators, and “conserve” here means “preserve” and “protect.” In Japan, several…

Platt Hall Creates New Connections with Objects

Platt Hall is being re-developed as a centre for Creative Health in Platt Fields Park, in the city of Manchester, England. It operates in an eighteenth-century Georgian-style building that was well-known for 70 years until 2017 as the Gallery of Costume and is part of Manchester City Galleries. The gallery held one of the largest apparel collections in England, introducing changes in fashion going back several centuries. As the building aged, however, the gallery was closed in 2017. Renovations were begun, the costume collection is being relocated to Queens Park store and conservation studios in the district of Harpurhey in the northern part of Manchester. Platt Hall began the process…

Memory-making at the Horniman Museum and Gardens, London

Morio Sayuri, object conservator

In this series we introduce people who are engaged with children’s learning and learning environments, focusing on their ideas and aspirations. What should be done so that children’s learning will be lively and animated and so that they will grasp the fascination, beauty, and importance of traditional crafts? Based on the issues she faces in communicating her own field, the author will ask her interviewees the questions she herself would like to ask about their work, and share the perspectives she gains in communicating her own field to others. The Horniman Museum and Gardens in Forest Hill is less than one hour by train from the center of London. The…

Tokyo Matsuya’s Venture: Passing on Traditional Edo Karakami Skills

Tanaka Atsuko, craft writer

The beauty of a work of craft has a story behind it. Surely that story is what will shape the next generation. We discover outstanding work created by hands and hearts and report about what is happening in the world of craft today. More than twenty years ago I wrote a book about craftspeople and crafts with traditions going back to the Edo period (1603–1868)(1). The artisans were highly skilled and their works were utilitarian and beautiful. The opportunities to interview them about their lives before and during World War II were invaluable experiences, and I was heartened to sometimes encounter the next generation of artisans passing on time-honored skills…

Japanese Art Crafts: A Chinese Translator’s View

Fujimoto Yukiko, editor, Heads Bookend Publishing Co. Ltd

This series presents interviews of professionals in diverse fields who view Japanese culture from overseas. The interviewees are people the author has met through her work in publishing. What unknown stories are to be found as we peel back the layers of tradition and culture? Shanghai-based book planner and translator Tang Shi introduces Japanese culture to Chinese audiences. After studying at Hokkaido University, Tang began working for a publisher in Shanghai, where she translated and published Japanese books in Chinese on subjects ranging from literature to art. Now a freelancer, Tang has planned, edited, and translated titles including Hana o tateru (Arranging Flowers; published by Shinchosha/Seika no Kai, 2021) by…

Toyama’s Inami: Community through Collaboration

Kai Kaori, writer

We believe that for local communities, crafts are hidden treasure that will prove to have value far greater than ever before. How will work that is grounded in nature and the environment be transformed and lifted as culture? There are people who are putting into practice new perspectives and methods. In this series, we go to see these people at work, and we consider how makers and the people who connect them to markets are discovering new value in crafts. 　　　 In the Inami district of Nanto, Toyama Prefecture, a center of woodcarving craft for over 600 years, I interviewed architect Yamakawa Tomotsugu. The Bed and Craft network that Yamakawa…

A Guide to Enjoying Art Museums with the Five Senses｜Sophie Richard

Fujimoto Yukiko, editor, Heads Bookend Publishing Co. Ltd

This series presents interviews of professionals in diverse fields who view Japanese culture from overseas. The interviewees are people the author has met through her work in publishing. What unknown stories are to be found as we peel back the layers of tradition and culture? I interviewed London-based art historian Sophie Richard, author of The Art Lover’s Guide to Japanese Museums (2014 and 2019). Visiting Japan regularly from 2004, she has been steadily visiting art and other kinds of museums and cultural facilities to explore their character and attractions. Sophie Richard Born in Provence, France, and educated at the École du Louvre and the Sorbonne in Paris, Sophie Richard is…

Young V&A, the Museum where Children, Young People, and Families Can Imagine, Play, and Design

Morio Sayuri, object conservator

In this series we introduce people who are engaged with children’s learning and learning environments, focusing on their ideas and aspirations. What should be done so that children’s learning will be lively and animated and so that they will grasp the fascination, beauty, and importance of traditional crafts? Based the issues she faces in communicating her own field, the author (a conservator) will ask her interviewees the questions she herself would like to ask about their work, and share the perspectives she gains. The collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) includes arts and crafts from around the world. The V&A Museum of Childhood, a V&A annex that reopened…

Treasured Woodworking Skills Flourish in Toyama’s Inami District

Kai Kaori, writer

We believe that for local communities, crafts are hidden treasure that will prove to have value far greater than ever before. How will work that is grounded in nature and the environment be transformed and lifted as culture? There are people who are putting into practice new perspectives and methods. In this series, we go to see these people at work, and we consider how makers and the people who connect them to markets are discovering new value in crafts. Traditionally, the craft of woodcarving evokes household status symbols such as an eagle—associated with power and courage—in a tokonoma or intricately carved ranma woodwork in the transoms of Japanese-style rooms….

Journey to Ama in the Oki Islands

Sakai Itto, coordinator

Travelers undertake journeys for the love of culture. Thay want to know and learn about the context of a locality as people have lived it. They want to go there to experience it firsthand. Culture takes many forms—crafts, architecture, temples, shrines, performing arts, all sorts of tangible and intangible things, as well as food, vernacular customs rooted in daily life, and the values and lifestyles of the local people. In this series, I will focus on how to learn about and experience culture in the broad sense, with two people who are involved in culture and tourism in places where I have traveled. This time, the setting is the town…

Tanabe Chiku’unsai IV and the Future of Bamboo Craft

Tanaka Atsuko, craft writer

The beauty of a work of craft has a story behind it. Surely that story is what will shape the next generation. We will search out the outstanding work created by hands and hearts and report about what is happening in the world of craft today. Message from a Bamboo Installation Twisting, spreading, crawling, rising like a dragon or a giant serpent. A tall assemblage of bamboo reaching for the skies, pulsing with life force and expanding the possibilities of thin strips of bamboo stimulates the viewer’s imagination. Tanabe Chiku’unsai IV’s installations have gone far beyond the bounds of bamboo craft, dazzling the art world and pointing the way to…