Request for Restoration of Severe Damaged Kakejiku from Germany

We take quite a lot orders from foreign customers. This time, our story is about a request for remounting a severely damaged kakejiku (hanging scroll) from Germany. We received some pictures of the scroll.

The kakejiku was seriously damaged. (Painted by Komai Genki.)

On the painting, we noticed some areas whose colours look different from other areas, having scratches/scars. These areas were brittle and we assumed they would break if the backing paper was removed.

After confirming the pictures, we replied to the customer as below.

We will proceed our work very carefully to protect your kakejiku during the restoration process.

For areas suffering loss of painting/materials and whose colours became uneven, we highly recommend “hosai/retouch of the painting” as an
option for the natural look.

For dirt and stains attached to the artwork, we will attend to them as much as we can. However, please note that this artwork will not stand the strong chemicals and intense work so we would like to decide how far we will proceed, depending on how it goes. The strain/dirt removal may not to be proceeded if we think it’s best not to for your artwork.

The customer’s follow-up question was:

Do you feel confident, that the silk picture can be preserved without taking significant damage from the remounting process? (please note that no insult to your esteemed work is intended by this question)?

To prevent breaking/flaking from occurring, we do a process called “omote-uchi” which is a technique used for deeply damaged painting and national important cultural properties.

This is how it works. First, we protect the surface of the painting with a special glue. Once it dries, we will remove the old backings and apply the 1st backing(new paper). After the 1st backing is finished, we will remove the omote-uchi.

The picture below: This is the painting with a new backing paper after we remove the old backings and omote-uchi.

Thanks to omote-uchi, we could keep the breaking as minimum as possible, however the tears caused by the creases remained as shown in the picture.(White scratches)

Adding colors to the tears is the process of “hosai”. After hosai, we will do “ore-fuse” which is an application of thin strip Japanese paper to the backside of the painting for reinforcement.

The picture below: This is the finished scroll after every restoration process is done.

Please check how the tears became unnoticeable after hosai.

I hope this clarifies your concern. At least, we can say any significant damages were made during the remounting process on the painting. We are always very careful with a remounting process, in order to keep the painting as safe and beautiful as possible.

He was convinced by our answer and sent the scroll to us.

The Arrival of the Kakejiku and Confirming the Details

We confirmed the condition of the scroll in person, and found that the damages were much deeper than we had expected.

The areas in the red circles were especially severely damaged. For example, they were already torn (the silk was brittle and very dry) and there were paint/silk losses.

We found more similar damages other than the areas in the red circles. The discolored area that looked like scars were probably made due to a scratch. We assumed the scratch was a result of silk getting old and deteriorating. The silk became thinner and weaker and then became fragile against external stimuli.

Specifications of the Remounting

After spending a long time to discuss the details, we finally confirmed specifications of the remounting as per the following:

For the cleaning and stain removal, we will use water only or a low concentration detergent in a short period of time that we feel safe for the painting.

We will apply thin strips of Japanese paper to where it is brittle (eg. losses, deep creases and scratches) on the backside of the painting for reinforcement. (a process called “ore-fuse”)

We will do hosai (additional toning).

Mounting style : Gyou-no-gyou mounting style. (Please refer to : https://nomurakakejiku.com/lesson_lineup/yamato- style- mounting)

Mount fabric size : We will decide it, taking the overall balance into account.

Option : Futomaki-style Paulownia wooden box (Futomaki is a tool to make a diameter of the scroll bigger and helps to preserve a hanging scroll in a good condition.)

Mounting fabric : as per the picture below.

Restoration Process

Omote-uchi

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Removal of Old Backing Papers

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Smoothly removed.

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Cleaning

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To protect the damaged painting, we kept the cleaning process to a minimum and it worked out.

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Applying New Backing Paper

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Wrinkles and creases were smoothed out. We could save those already torn parts.

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Removing Facing Paper

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Successfully removed. Until this moment, all was on track as expected. And then, we found that the painting had countless scars and the silk material was heavily torn. These parts were unnoticeable at first because the creases, torn and damaged parts were covered with dirt. After cleaning, they became apparent.

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Hosai (Toning)

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The process was time-consuming than we planned. The reason was because, the silk material of the painting was sleek and shiny which is unique for Japanese painting. We applied pigments to make the “white scratches(torn-areas)” look natural but the glossy effect of the silk troubled us. The torn and broken silk looked different when seen from different angles due to the glossy effect.

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After taking a long time and making many attempts for hosai, we thought we reached the certain limit of what we could achieve. Please see the picture below. This is the best we possibly could.

Please see the pictures below for the before and after results.

Preventive Measure against Creases: Ore-fuse (Reinforcing the Existing Creases from the Back of the Painting)

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Cut and Join (Tsuke-mawashi/Kiri-tsugi)

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Folding Over the Edge (Mimi-ori)

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Finishing

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Restoration Completed

The time-consuming restoration was finally finished!! The kakejiku was brought back to life.

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We used the futomaki-style box as the picture below. The scroll had many creases so it would perfectly protect the scroll in terms of the longer and better preservation.

Feedback from the Customer