The rebirth of venerable statues

On April 9, the Sculpture (Conservation) Studio held a briefing session to announce the results of its efforts to restore various images of the Buddha.

In the previous academic year alone, the studio received and responded to six requests for projects encompassing the restoration and reproduction of ten statues.

The results presented at this session included a highly unusual scale reproduction of the Siddhartha Gautama statue from Shogakuji temple. With the cooperation of staff from the Japanese Painting (Conservation) Studio, this reproduction was plated entirely in gold, using the same technique as that used for the original. The work done was based on extensive research into gold-plating techniques undertaken as part of a program at the Japanese Painting (Conservation) Studio involving the two partner programs.

In addition to gold plating, many sculptures feature colors. The possibilities for joint efforts involving the two studios appear likely to expand well into the future, with the Sculpture (Conservation) Studio handling three-dimensional forms and the Japanese Painting (Conservation) Studio handling coloring. The Department of Conservation features specialists in the conservation of Japanese painting, oil painting, sculpture, crafts, and architecture, as well as conservation science and preventive conservation. In many respects, this is a project only Tokyo University of the Arts could handle.