Abstract

In 2014 the British Museum acquired a little-known masterpiece painting, ‘Standing Courtesan Reading a Letter’, by the Japanese artist Kitagawa Utamaro (1753?–1806). Originally a hanging scroll, the painting arrived with its top and bottom mounting silks (joge) missing, but the inner mounting silks (chūberi and ichimonji) were still intact. The inner middle border silks—the chūberi—were constructed from recycled high-quality kimono silk with couched metal thread embroidery, which was partly detached and unravelled. This article accounts for the conservation and remounting of the painting, including the retention and conservation of the middle border silks, and discusses the decision-making processes regarding the re-use and replacement of the mounting silk from the perspective of curators and conservators from Japan and the UK. It also reports on how the project was undertaken as part of the Collaborative Project for the Conservation of Japanese Paintings in the British Museum, with BM conservators working together with scroll mounting conservators from the Association for Conservation of National Treasures (ACNT) of Japan, supported by the Sumitomo Foundation.

摘要

2014年，大英博物馆购买了日本画家北川宇多郎太郎（1753？–1806）的一幅鲜为人知的杰作，名为“站立的妓女读信”。最初是一幅悬挂的卷轴，到达时缺少顶部和底部的固定丝（joge），但是内部固定的丝（chūberi和ichimonji）仍然完好无损。内侧中间边界丝绸—丘贝里-由回收的优质和服丝绸制成，并带有沙发金属线绣花，部分拆开了。本文介绍了绘画的保护和重新安装，包括中间边界丝绸的保留和保护，并从日本的策展人和保护者的角度讨论了关于重新使用和更换镶嵌丝绸的决策过程。和英国。它还报告了该项目是如何作为大英博物馆的日本绘画保护合作项目的一部分进行的，由日本国家宝物保护协会（ACNT）的BM保护者与涡卷安装保护者一起工作，得到了支持由住友基金会提供。