Maintaining and Developing Materials and Techniques
The ACNT makes regular efforts to develop safer and more consistent techniques and materials to conserve cultural properties, and to maintain and pass down traditional methods for future generations. Some of these projects are subsidized by the national government.
Traditional materials—Essential for restoring Japanese paintings and calligraphies
The ACNT employs traditional materials based on the tools and materials used and refined over centuries, which make our conservation efforts last for the next century.
However, more recently there has been a problematic, steep decline in the number of producers of these traditional materials and tools. As time goes on, the dearth of successors and raw materials makes it more challenging to secure the necessary materials and tools to conserve cultural properties.
Since techniques and materials are difficult to resurrect once they disappear, we work with relevant organizations and producers of materials and tools to maintain and preserve them for future generations.
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Developing and Improving Animal Glue
The ACNT works with relevant organizations to develop safe and easy to use prototypes of animal glues for the restoration of cultural properties. The aim is to ensure a consistent supply of these glues.
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Reproducing Ancient Mounting Fabrics
The ACNT researches ancient fabrics to master the knowledge needed to produce suitable mounting fabrics for cultural properties. We hope that collaborating with producers leads to the revitalization of the Nishijin weaving district in Kyoto and other areas of textile production.
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Artificially Deteriorating Silk with Electron Beams
Artificially deteriorating silk using electron beam irradiation was conceptualized and brought to fruition in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Now, artificially deteriorated silk is essential for the conservation of calligraphies and paintings on silk. The ACNT produces and supplies artificially deteriorated silk while making repeated improvements to the electron-beam deterioration process.
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Successor development and training
Nurturing Personnel
We implement the following successor development and training projects with subsidies from the national government.
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Hosting annual workshops
The ACNT hosts annual workshops for registered conservators on topics related to the conservation and preservation of cultural properties. The workshops are open to students studying cultural property-related curriculum at universities and graduate schools, and members of the public who are interested in cultural properties.
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Conservator qualification system
The ACNT launched a conservator qualification system in 2003. The system aims to improve conservators’ techniques and impart important philosophies and knowledge through an objective evaluation of their competencies that includes their body of conservation work, practical skills, authored works, and an oral examination.
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Internship program for conservators
We provide tours and practical training for graduate students recommended by the Graduate Student Internship Council, which comprises universities with cultural property conservation-related curriculum.
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Training to make infill papers and identify paper fiber composition
In 1995, the ACNT hosted the first international symposium on techniques for making infill papers. We provide the materials for making infill paper, practical training for papermaking, and methods to identify fibers in artworks.
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Creating guidelines for conserving modern paintings
We enrich our experience with the opinions of other experts to create guidelines for the conservation of cultural properties from the mid-19th century and later that will require conservation in the future
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Seminars on conservation science
The ACNT invites outside experts to lead seminars on the science needed for cultural property conservation and to teach digital equipment skills.
International exchange
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The Conservation of Antiquities and Works of Art
Training Experts to Conserve and Restore Oriental Art (1967)
- Not long after the Association was established in 1959, we began interacting with overseas art and history museums. We continue our exchanges with international institutions in various forms to this day. We incorporated what were then the world’s most advanced ethics for cultural property conservation into the conservation of mounted cultural properties in Japan, and they continue to serve as the foundation. In the years since then, we have made efforts to interact with experts from around the world. We also work with relevant organizations to hold restoration technique workshops for Japanese paintings and calligraphies, and host international trainees to contribute to the conservation of Japanese cultural properties outside Japan.
The refined techniques for the conservation of cultural properties—including the conservation of mounted cultural properties and the associated materials and tools—are now recognized throughout the world. In 2020, restoration techniques for Japanese paintings and calligraphies were registered as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage as part of the Traditional Japanese architectural craftsmanship—traditional techniques for conserving wood-framed structures.
Main efforts
- 1967: Translated into Japanese and published The Conservation of Antiquities and Works of Art: Treatment, Repair, and Restoration, the 1956 book by the British archaeologist and conservation scientist, H.J. Plenderleith (1898-1997).
- 1967: Training of Experts in Conserving and Restoring Oriental Art held in Japan for museum personnel from Europe and the Americas, co-hosted with UNESCO and the International Council of Museums (ICOM). Practical training at member studios highlighted the need for technical assistance to conserve East Asian cultural properties in Europe and the Americas.
- 1990’s: Red Cross for Cultural Properties concept launched by the late professor Ikuo Hirayama (1930 – 2009).
- 1990: Launched the Cooperative Program for the Conservation of Japanese Art Objects Overseas, co-hosted with the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, and the Foundation for Cultural Heritage and Art Research.
- 1992: Launched the International Course on Conservation of Japanese Paper in cooperation with the Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties and the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM).
- 1995: Hosted the first international symposium on Conservation and Mounting Technique for Japanese Paintings.
- 2004: Hosted the International Symposium on the Present and the Future of Oriental Cultural Property Conservation. (10th Annual Workshop)
- 2006: Started a technical assistance project at The British Museum, UK. Hosted the First International Symposium on Paper Conservation in East Asia in Beijing, and four more times in Japan, China, and South Korea.
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Conservation project at The British Museum
Ongoing since 2006, this project is supported with a grant from The Sumitomo Foundation. Highly experienced conservators are dispatched to the Hirayama Studio at The British Museum, where they work with local conservators and curators to conserve items in the museum’s collection. This joint effort encourages local conservators who have never worked in Japan to develop a better understanding of the restoration techniques used for Japanese paintings and calligraphies and provides our registered conservators with opportunities to broaden their perspectives through the experience of working in an environment unlike Japan.
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ICCROM international courses
The ACNT cooperates with the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) on international courses for people involved in the conservation of cultural properties around the world. We engage in technical exchanges and public relations by providing guidance for the restoration techniques used on Japanese paintings and calligraphies and through efforts such as introducing washi (Japanese paper) and other traditional Japanese materials and tools.
To date, our members have been invited to serve as instructors at international courses by the Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties and ICCROM, including the International Course on Paper Conservation in Japan, the International Course on Paper Conservation in Latin America in Mexico, Workshops on the Conservation of Japanese Art Objects on Paper and Silk in Germany, and Workshops on the Conservation of Dyed Textiles in Taiwan.
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Other international exchange projects
Each year, the ACNT implements international exchange projects with cooperation from relevant organizations. Projects include hosting and training international conservators and dispatching our conservators to different countries. We host joint projects and workshops with conservators from Japan and the rest of the world, attend international conferences and related activities.
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At present, the ACNT implements the following types of international exchange projects with cooperation from relevant organizations in and outside Japan.
Other projects
Efforts to rescue cultural properties
Rescuing a cultural property
(Image credit: Kawasaki City Museum)
ACNT has developed a disaster response system in collaboration with the Agency for Cultural Affairs and other relevant organizations. Our internal Crisis Management and Disaster Control Office gathers information and our network of member studios mobilizes to rescue cultural properties.
To date, ACNT has dispatched conservators to rescue cultural properties after the Kumamoto Earthquakes, the fire at Shuri Castle, and the typhoon that damaged the Kawasaki City Museum, to name a few.
ACNT is one of the groups participating in the council to promote the Japanese Cultural Heritage Disaster Risk Mitigation Network of the Cultural Properties Disaster Prevention Center at the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, which was established on October 1, 2020.
Study of essential tools and raw materials for the conservation of cultural properties
Conservators studying raw materials processing
ACNT participates in the study of essential tools and raw materials for the conservation of artworks, implemented by the Agency for Cultural Affairs.
The Association visits places where tools and raw materials are produced and supplied. Interacting directly with producers enables ACNT members to hear their thoughts, understand what is at stake, and work with the national government to consider and promote necessary measures. This study commenced in 2018 and is ongoing as of 2020.
Please see the 684th edition of Gekkan bunkazai (Cultural Properties Monthly) for details.
Large scale conservation projects
Normally, the conservation of mounted cultural properties is performed by one of the member studios under the ACNT’s guidance. However, the scale, length, or unprecedented nature of a conservation project may make it difficult for a single studio to perform all the necessary work. To manage these projects, the ACNT takes the lead in assembling a group of conservators from member studios to perform the conservation work.
A recent project
Conservation of the Murals and Folding Screens from Nijo-jo Castle, Ninomaru-goten Palace
Nijo-jo Castle
In 2006, a long-term conservation project began for the Ninomaru-goten Palace at Nijo-jo Castle in Kyoto city. Technicians are stationed at the conservation facility on the castle grounds to perform conservation work on designated important cultural properties including fusuma (sliding doors) and wall murals painted by Kano school artists.
Some sliding doors are wider than 2 meters and have become quite fragile after many years of service at the palace. There are 956 murals and folding screens. Simple multiplication shows that, at the rate of conserving more than 20 murals and folding screens each year, the work will take nearly 50 years to complete. To sustain this effort, ACNT continues to assemble teams of conservators from our member studios.
