Yamagata Network’s Activity Report & Objective ~Part 28

~From the blog of 11th October of the Yamagata Relief Network for Cultural Heritage~

Introduction

Sorry for the dealy in updating, we are now sending an activity report and objective this week. Today is 11th October. 7 months have passed since the disaster. My dear fellows, let us carry out our preservation operations with renewed vigour!

[Last Week’s Activity Report]

1. 3rd and 4th October, we carried out cleaning operations in Yamagata University and Tohoku University of Arts and Design.
2. 7th October, a cleaning operation was held in Yonezawa Women’s Junior College and we prepared the panel exhibition.
3. 8th October, the preparation for the panel exhibition was carried out in YWJC.

[This Weeks’s Objective]

1. 11th October, We will hold a cleaning operation in TUAD, and also hold a regular meeting there.
2. 14th October, the cleaning operation in YWJC will be held.
3. We will report our operation in the Conference for Researching Local History.

[Advertisement for Exhibition in TUAD]

• The exhibition of “the rescue operation for affected libraries ~preserve, pass down, and relate together~”
• The exhibition of “the restoration observed through Japanese papers ~preserve, pass down, and relate together~”

The department of Art History and Conservation has been carrying out rescue operations for cultural properties affected in Miyagi and Iwate prefectures by the East Japan Earthquake. Among them, the overwhelming majority are library books, and students in TUAD are tackling various problems of those books like removing the caked mud and mould. As we titled the exhibition “the rescue operation for affected libraries ~preserve, pass down, and relate together”, we would like to introduce our efforts to you. We appreciate you to have compassion for our feeling toward the operations.  

In addition, we will also have an exhibition titled “the restoration observed through Japanese papers ~preserve, pass down, and relate together~”, and it introduces you to the Japanese papers which are used in conservation methods as essential materials for the restoration of Asian paintings. We would like you to feel the variety and beauty of Japanese paper in the exhibition room. At the same time, it will be a good opportunity to know the fruit of students’  daily learning, because understanding the meaning of Japanese paper is comparable to understanding the conservation and restoration of Asian paintings.

Comment on the Exhibition, by Kumiko Miura, Associate Professor of Art History and Conservation

The learning and research contents in the department of Art History and Conservation have little  opportunity to be opened to the public; it is therefore difficult for the public to know the students’ efforts. They do not create and exhibit their pieces as an item of self-expression, instead they learn this very important and responsible field of study in order to support the passing down of contemporary arts or cultural properties from generation to generation, by understanding art history and obtaining the skills of conservation.

As a result of the East Japan Earthquake, we have already sacrificed too much. For this reason, we researchers in this field are engaging in the operations to pass down Japanese cultural heritage as much as we possibly can. Hereafter, we believe these rescue operations for damaged cultural materials will have an increasingly important meaning. Our students will also shoulder a part of these activities, so this exhibition is worthy of close attention. Please come and see the fruit of their efforts.

The outline of exhibitions

• Date: 28th October to 9th November (Sunday and holidays will be closed)
• Time: 10:00am to 7:00pm (on Saturday, till 5:00pm)
• Place: Library studio 144 in TUAD
• Entrance fee: free