Conserving a Japanese hanging scroll painting | A courtesan by Kitagawa Utamaro

The conservation and re-mounting of Kitagawa Utamaro’s hanging scroll, “Standing Courtesan Reading a Letter” and its silk mount (BM 2014,3048.1), was completed at the British Museum Hirayama studio in November 2016 thanks to generous support from the Sumitomo Foundation. The treatment was part of the Collaborative Project for Conservation of Japanese Paintings in the British Museum collection together with the Association for Conservation of National Treasures. Scroll mounter Keisuke Sugiyama first masterminded the project with curator Tim Clark and Iwataro-Yasuhiro Oka, director of ACNT, in discussions with textile conservators Monique Pullan and Anna Harrison. Kyoko Kusunoki took over the lead of the project from Keisuke Sugiyama after the painting had been consolidated, disassembled and washed. The ACNT conservators involved were: Makoto Kajitani, Masanobu Yamazaki, Atsushi Mikkaichi, Aya One, Aya Matoba and Jun Imada. Other BM conservators and students involved were Eveliina Holopaine