Translator Reviews ( Japanese → English )

Japanese

この写真は作品の古い裏打ちをはがしているところです。作品に水を程よくかけて裏打ち用紙をふやかし指の腹でゆっくり作品を傷つけないように裏打ち用紙をはがします。その後、本紙だけにして新しい裏打ち用紙で裏打ちをし直します。裏打ち用紙が真新しすぎると作品が安っぽく見えることがあるので、裏打ち用紙をコーヒーで染め、少し茶色にしたところで裏打ちすると古い作品となじみます。コーヒーを使うのは私の親方のやり方です。最初聞いた時は驚きました。職人はそれぞれ自分のやり方で試行錯誤しています。

English

This picture shows a man peeling away the old backing paper from an artwork. Put a little amount of water on the artwork to make the liner paper soft enough to be peeled away slowly by the ball of a finger so as not to damage the artwork itself.

Then, back up the naked artwork with a new liner. However, the new liner is so fresh that it often makes the artwork look cheap. In order to make the artwork look old as it is, you may dye the liner with coffee until it has slight brown color on it. This is the way my master used to do; coffee. I was surprised when I first heard about this. Every craftworker tries various ways to select his best.