One of a kind: the Hirayama Conservation Studio

When you enter the Hirayama Studio, you mustn't be surprised when you're asked to take off your shoes before you step on to our tatami mats. Glossy red lacquer tables from China stand tall next to low Japanese wooden benches, all imported from East Asia. The walls are clad with drying boards – wooden Chinese ones and Japanese karibari boards (wooden lattice structures covered in layers of paper, sealed with persimmon juice) – which hold an array of newly remounted hanging scrolls. Having undergone intensive treatments, the scrolls dry for months on end until they are flat and stable.

Scroll mounting is at the heart of the work we do in the Hirayama Studio, where we treat objects within the tradition in which they were made. Japanese paintings are treated with Japanese methods, tools and materials; Chinese paintings are treated in the manner they would be in China. Similarly, we treat Korean paintings, South Asian and Southeast Asian paintings and thangkas (Tibetan Buddhist paintings) in a manner that respects their original makeup.

A scroll is a fantastic storage and display system for East Asian paintings. Rolled up tight, the painting inside is protected from harmful external influences (light, fluctuating environments and even hungry pests, to a certain degree). When wanted for display, a scroll can be hung or laid out with a surrounding silk mount that beautifully offsets and frames the painting. But rolling and unrolling a scroll over the years, while its materials inevitably degrade over time, places pressure on the object. Creases and cracks develop in due course. Here enters the scroll mounter. By removing and replacing most or all of the secondary material (old lining papers, silk borders and adhesives) every 100–200 years or so, the 'original' painting (just one layer of incredibly thin paper or silk carrying ink or pigments) can be given new life and enjoyed by millions of visitors both now and in the future.

So the unique appearance of the Studio, with its stores of historic East Asian papers and silks, walls holding dozens of brushes and glazed terracotta jars of wheat starch paste, is by no means just a design choice. Ultimately, by treating the paintings in their respective traditional ways we ensure their survival and authenticity as scrolls.

Although traditional scroll mounting techniques are at the heart of nearly all the work we do, we also utilise the very best of what science and technology has to offer – for instance, our new 3D digital microscope allows us to make 3D maps of paintings at different stages of treatment. The high magnification it affords enables us to examine the papers, silks and pigments more closely than ever before. We also use condition mapping software to document our treatments.

Of the current team working in the Hirayama Studio, only one person remembers its opening: Qiu Jin Xian (or Qiu Laoshi/Teacher Qiu, as we call her) has been lead conservator of Chinese paintings at the British Museum for the past 36 years. She worked first in the small studio that accommodated the Eastern Pictorial Art conservation team before the Museum undertook the visionary step to create a major facility for East Asian scroll mounting within this spacious historic building. This vision was happily shared by Professor Ikuo Hirayama who, with the Five Cities Art Dealers Association, made the generous donation that equipped the Hirayama Studio.

Qiu Laoshi is justly celebrated internationally for maintaining and bringing her traditional techniques over from Shanghai Museum so long ago and treating some of the most treasured Chinese paintings the Museum holds, so that they can be displayed and shared with the world. Relationships with Chinese museums remain strong, with both of Qiu Laoshi's current assistants, Valentina and myself, having spent time training in Shanghai, and over the years several Shanghai Museum master mounters have visited and worked with us here.

Our Japanese team, trained in Japan in traditional scroll mounting, have been privileged to work closely with master mounters from Japan's Association for Conservation of National Treasures (Kokuhoshuri Soko-shi Renmei) over the past 17 years on a collaborative project generously supported by the Sumitomo Foundation. This international collaboration has allowed 12 treasured paintings to be fully remounted and subsequently displayed. 

In recent years, Amorepacific generously funded a five-year project, facilitated by the Korea Foundation, which enabled fieldwork research, advanced training, purchase of authentic materials and equipment including a 3D microscope, as well as mounting Korean paintings in accordance with Korean tradition. Expert Korean mounters visited us here and hosted British Museum colleagues in Korea. Maintaining continuous dialogue, friendship and partnerships is invaluable in furthering training and expertise, and allows us to continue to source specific materials and tools essential for our work.

What makes the Hirayama Studio unique, and a one-of-its-kind in Europe certainly, is the proximity in which mounters of different traditions work together. For a student of scroll mounting there is nowhere more interesting to be, observing how different techniques and approaches occur simultaneously.

Sometimes we share ideas and materials, but at other times we guard our techniques preciously, such as the method for the removal of first linings from degraded silk paintings. For the Japanese team, first lining removal is now largely carried out using minute amounts of moisture at a very localised level, a precise and painstaking treatment that can take months, as lining papers are removed fibre by fibre. However, the Chinese team still carries out this intense treatment in one focused go, removing backing papers and the linings beneath in one operation, keeping the entire painting moist sometimes for days at a time (a process made safe only when carefully judged by an experienced mounter). With this example we can easily explain away the difference in approach, as different papers require different tactics, yet sometimes our techniques differ simply because we believe that ours are safer, quicker or better! In this way we can happily work side-by-side on our own objects, curiously watching what our colleagues are doing.

Over the years the studio has been open to students and professionals from far and wide through a regular parade of student placements, memorable seminars, masterclasses and consultations. We have made sure to promote scroll mounting practice and to share what we learn: challenging treatments are always put in the spotlight, interested students and colleagues are invited to witness our work, and videos of treatments are made available online.

Many incredible projects have passed through the Hirayama Studio, but here are some of the most memorable moments.

The Admonitions Scroll (Nüshi zhen tu 女史箴图)

Back in 2014, the team had the privilege of working on this iconic early Chinese painting ahead of its redisplay. Following years of close inspection, including detailed photography which enabled us to assess the painting closely, the Museum held an international symposium of experts to discuss its treatment. After this, the team had a matter of months to stabilise the painting before it was placed in its brand-new case. Working under magnification the team took it in turns, working one hour at a time (so as not to get fatigued), to insert miniscule amounts of consolidant (adhesive) under any lifting silk threads that needed securing with the finest brushes available. It was a true team effort and an honour to be involved.

Mammoth mounting: the Hōryūji mural painting

If scale is a factor that makes something memorable, then the mounting of an enormous painting of a Hōryūji mural into a three by four metre hanging scroll must be up there. The Japanese team undertook this challenge in 2018–19 with the help of visiting conservators from Japan. The team had to use a stage platform normally used in theatres as a bridge to be able to reach the centre of the painting. A bespoke titanium roller was shipped from Japan to hang and store the mounted painting (a usual wooden roller would be too heavy for a scroll of this size).

A Dunhuang puzzle: piecing together fragmentary paintings

Back in 2002, Qiu Laoshi welcomed her former Shanghai Museum colleague Zhu Pin Fang and spent three months working to conserve over 100 painting fragments from the 'Library Cave' (Cave 17) in Dunhuang. Working alongside scholars, the team compared the silk weaves, colours and painting designs of the conserved fragments. They were able to piece together many painting fragments and line them in their original positions, hinting at the true scale of some of these incredible paintings. Once conserved and pieced back together, the paintings were photographed and digitised to share with the world.

Folding screens over the years

It is always a treat to be able to work on folding screens. The conservation of a six-panel Utagawa Toyoharu screen in 2001 by Abe-san, Andrew, Sydney and Sara, was filmed and released on VHS as Secrets of the Screen, narrated by none other than Sir David Attenborough. Other screen highlights include the conservation by Keisuke and visiting Japanese conservators of a two-panel Japanese folding screen depicting Chinese sages in 2010–13. A recently finished Japanese folding screen project – the conservation of a pair of screens decorated with fan paintings by Kawamura Bunpō – saw Museum conservators Kyoko and Matthias travel to Japan to work not only with scroll mounters but with conservation joiners and karakami papermakers (karakami paper normally covers the external panels of folding screens, typically hand-printed with mica patterns) in order to create new papered wooden lattice cores for these stunning objects. Similarly, Meejung travelled to Korea between 2018–23 to research and re-paper wooden lattices in preparation for remounting several Korean folding screens. Of these, Scenes of Life was remounted using its original 18th-century mount fabrics and a pattern replica cotton specially woven and dyed using historical processes.

Changing Rooms: repapering and deep cleaning

The teams have in the past been called upon to re-paper the Korean sarangbang (a scholar's room) in Gallery 67 and the Japanese tea house in Gallery 92, which were fabulous opportunities to share our work directly with the public. 

One regular occurrence, which isn't a favourite amongst some staff members, is the annual cleaning of our 'aged paste basement'. The final backing paper layer of a Japanese hanging scroll is adhered using an aged wheat starch paste, which is made in big batches each year but waits for at least ten years before it is used. The mould that develops needs to be cleaned off every batch each winter and the accompanying smell is not to everyone's taste...

Grand openings

The Hirayama team has over its 30 years contributed to the openings and refurbishment of every Japanese, Chinese, Korean, South Asian and Middle Eastern gallery in that time (Qiu Laoshi spent seven years dedicated to preparing paintings for the launch of the Korea Foundation gallery in 2000). The team has also conserved objects for a series of truly memorable blockbuster exhibitions, from Ming (2014) to Manga (2019).

We are acutely aware that we are responsible for unique works – some of them masterpieces and others, like the Japanese tea room walls, entirely ephemeral. The Hirayama Studio functions within the great symbiosis of the Museum, with its display, loans and storage programmes and busy administration. But at the same time, it periodically transforms into a timeless and boundless centre for research, training and reflection.

We offer our warmest thanks to our donors and benefactors: Amorepacific Corporation; American Friends of the Shanghai Museum; Bei Shan Tang Foundation; E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation; Fu Shu Qun Foundation; Hua Qi Ming; Korea Foundation; Paul Wills; Professor Ikuo Hirayama; The Five Cities Art Dealers Association; Japan–China Buddhist Culture and Arts Foundation; The Sumitomo Foundation; Mr David Ying Zhang, a gift in honour of Ms Jingli Xu and Mr Adam Ting Liu Zhang; and all those who wish to remain anonymous.

Many thanks in particular to the many former colleagues, friends and supporters who have contributed so much to the Hirayama Studio over the last 30 years.