ART OF KYOTO

Kyoto Dig­i­tal Archive Project

Pre­serv­ing our cul­tural his­tory — the art, archi­tec­ture and aes­thet­ics of our cities — is one of the most impor­tant tasks any gen­er­a­tion attends to, espe­cially in an era in which many things feel dis­pos­able. The ancient Japan­ese cap­i­tal of Kyoto, with a his­tory dat­ing back over 1400 years, has a tremen­dous wealth of artis­tic mas­ter­pieces that were cre­ated orig­i­nally for tem­ples and shrines. These pieces were once widely viewed and enjoyed, but can no longer be shown pub­licly, due to dete­ri­o­ra­tion over time. In order to pre­serve this aes­thetic legacy and extend it to the next gen­er­a­tion, Kyoto Cul­ture Asso­ci­a­tion has dig­i­tally repro­duced bril­liant sets of fusuma-e (slid­ing door art) masterpieces.

The com­bi­na­tion of the cut­ting edge tech­nol­ogy of Dig­i­tal Archive and the tra­di­tional tech­nique would bring cul­tural trea­sures of Kyoto, which have been extremely dif­fi­cult to trans­port to over­seas, to audi­ences in New York. In New York, the world’s cen­ter of art and cul­ture, Onishi Gallery found “Art of Kyoto”. It is a project that would intro­duce the cul­ture and art of Kyoto and the dig­i­tal meth­ods describ­ing the process of repli­cat­ing Japan­ese works of art renown as cul­tural trea­sures of Japan.

Greet­ings from Kyoto

TAKESHI ADACHI, Head of Kyoto Cul­ture Association

Kyoto is a city blessed with numer­ous cul­tural mas­ter­pieces passed down from gen­er­a­tion to gen­er­a­tion. These price­less trea­sures have been pro­tected and cher­ished over the course of cen­turies. It is our cul­tural imper­a­tive to pre­serve this pre­cious legacy of Kyoto for future generations.

With the help of cutting-edge dig­i­tal tech­nol­ogy, we are com­mit­ted to pre­serve our irre­place­able cul­ture and her­itage. We want to pass down these art works to suc­ceed­ing gen­er­a­tions in order to edu­cate the youth of Japan and trans­mit the cul­ture of Kyoto to the rest of the world.

Over the cen­turies, Kyoto has flour­ished by actively embrac­ing new eras while valu­ing and pro­tect­ing its his­tory and tra­di­tions. It is our belief that the impor­tance and sig­nif­i­cance of Kyoto as a city of cul­ture and art will con­tinue. There­fore, we are com­mit­ted to vital­ize and pro­mote the cul­ture of Kyoto. We would sin­cerely appre­ci­ate your sup­port for the con­ser­va­tion, restora­tion and repro­duc­tion work that the Kyoto Cul­ture Asso­ci­a­tion does.

Inte­rior Dec­o­ra­tion Architecture

Con­tem­po­rary archi­tec­ture meets tradition

We intro­duce high def­i­n­i­tion repro­duc­tions of Japan­ese cul­tural trea­sures of fusuma-e (slid­ing door art) and byobu-e (screens) to mod­ern and con­tem­po­rary spaces world­wide. Orig­i­nally, about three to four cen­turies ago, these cul­tural trea­sures were made by great mas­ters in Japan. These unique, his­tor­i­cal works of art are dis­played in pri­vate and cor­po­rate spaces. The result is a grand dis­play of rare, illus­tra­tive works of art.

Tra­di­tional indus­trial art tech­nique — gold leaf application

It is said that the gold leaf on art is impos­si­ble to repro­duce with con­tem­po­rary print­ing tech­nol­ogy. How­ever, the most sig­nif­i­cant char­ac­ter­is­tic of Kyoto’s Cul­tural Trea­sures is in the gold leaf. We use the tech­nique of tra­di­tional indus­trial art from Nishi­jin, Kyoto, in order to repro­duce the gold leaf. Dur­ing the exhi­bi­tion, we are plan­ning to cre­ate a booth to demon­strate to the audi­ences the appli­ca­tion of the gold leaf.

Mr. Hiroto Rakusho (Indus­trial Artist)

Born in 1962. Mr. Hiroto Rakusho has been involved in gold leaf appli­ca­tion under the instruc­tion of his father Mr. Jisaku Nishiyama, an awarded artist of Kyoto City’s tra­di­tional indus­try Asso­ci­a­tion. Mr. Hiroto Rakusho not only focused on keep­ing the tra­di­tion, but also con­cen­trated on cre­at­ing artis­tic col­or­ing in gold leaf pieces.

In 1997, he was selected by the Min­istry of Econ­omy, Trade and Indus­try as an acknowl­edged Tra­di­tional Indus­trial Artist. He expanded his field into research of metal mate­ri­als and their chem­i­cal reac­tions. He also col­lab­o­rated with artists from var­i­ous gen­res to restore and design inte­ri­ors at the Kyoto National Museum and the Nagoya Mar­riott Hotel. In 2002, he founded Hiroto Rakusho, and Tsuki no Kioku (mem­o­ries of the moon), a kimono brand from Nishijin.

He intro­duced the tra­di­tional tech­niques such as adding/restoring col­ors to orig­i­nal art and gold leaf appli­ca­tion into the dig­i­tal archive project. He now intends to dis­trib­ute the Japan­ese cul­ture to the world.

Tra­di­tional indus­trial art tech­nique –mounting

Mounter frames the dig­i­tally printed Washi with gold leaf. He will com­plete the repro­duc­tion in the forms of fusuma (slid­ing doors) and byobu (fold­ing screen) which are uncom­mon in West­ern culture.

Mr. Tat­suo Ooiri (Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Direc­tor of Ooiri Co.,Ltd.)

In 1951, Momo­taro Ooiri founded Ooiri Firm. Upon grad­u­a­tion of high school, Tat­suo, Momotaro’s first son, joined mount-business of the com­parny. After being engaged in repair­ing, repro­duc­ing, and cre­at­ing replica of old doc­u­ments and books, Tat­suo estab­lished Ooiri, Cor­po­ra­tion. He has been involved in tra­di­tional Japan­ese book restora­tion and replica cre­at­ing for museum exhi­bi­tions, includ­ing Jyoshi Shinzu kan (Proverb for women) at The British Library, doc­u­ments (800 vol­umes) at Shoso-in Trea­sure House, and Hana­zono in shinki (Hana­zono Impe­r­ial notes) at Impe­r­ial House­hold Agency’s doc­u­ment. He has been heav­ily involved in restora­tion projects since 1989, mainly for uni­ver­sity libraries, archive facil­i­ties and muse­ums. He is also work­ing on the analy­sis project of recently dis­cov­ered orig­i­nal hand writ­ten copy of Nar­row path to the far North. He is engaged in putting the book into pieces and restor­ing it back together for the research pur­poses. Mr. Oiri is expand­ing his field of work into Washi, Japan­ese tra­di­tional paper, rang­ing from kake­jiku (hang­ing scroll), byobu (fold­ing screen), and fusuma (slid­ing door) to antique paintings/drawings. He is also involved in archive preser­va­tion and dig­i­tal­iz­ing projects.

Mr. Yoshit­sugu Yamaji (Yamaji Inc.)

Born in 1971. After grad­u­at­ing from Depart­ment of Econ­omy, Yam­aguchi Uni­ver­sity, and worked for a trad­ing com­pany, he became the 4th gen­er­a­tion of his fam­ily busi­ness of mount­ing. Yamaji Taizan Do was founded more than 120 years ago by Hironori Yamaji in Hiroshima. Despite rel­a­tively short his­tory com­pared to major mount­ing busi­nesses, with its extra­or­di­nary tech­nique and sen­si­tiv­ity, the com­pany has been restor­ing gold leaf wall dec­o­ra­tion, byobu (fold­ing screen), fusuma (slid­ing door), and kake­jiku (hang­ing scroll) at shrines and temples.

In recent years, com­pany is han­dling golden fold­ing screens at Prime Minister’s Res­i­dence and at the Hotel Okura. Com­pany does not limit its activ­i­ties to the field of mount­ing; it is search­ing the way to make con­tri­bu­tion to the Japan­ese cul­ture through their mount­ing tech­nique. It also aims to com­bine the tra­di­tional indus­trial arts and dig­i­tal archive projects. The com­pany has been awarded Hiroshima Ven­ture Patron­ize Award by the Hiroshima Ven­ture Foun­da­tion in 2004. Mr. Yamaji joins the mis­sion of The Kyoto Inter­na­tional Cul­tural Foun­da­tion and intends to dis­trib­ute the Japan­ese art to the world.