The Paint Won’t Set!? A Scroll Mounting Request from the United States
In Japanese art, even when a painting or calligraphy work is completed by the artist, it cannot be displayed as-is. It must be made into a form suitable for display—a process called hyōgu (mounting), carried out by specialists like us known as hyōgushi. Since ancient times, mounting has been inseparable from the creation of Japanese artworks.
However, mounting comes with its own strict rules, especially regarding which materials can be used. When artists use materials not intended for mounting, it can be extremely difficult to process their works. In some cases, the work may even be declined.
Today, we’d like to share one such episode—an especially troublesome project we received from a customer in the United States.
A Returning Client from the U.S.
This client had previously entrusted us with scroll restoration and came back again—a reminder of the trust built through our past work. This time, the request involved two scrolls: restoring a tiger-themed scroll, and mounting an unmounted painting of Sarutahiko into a kakejiku.
The tiger scroll had several small stains and noticeable traces of insect droppings.
These droppings are notoriously difficult to clean, requiring painstaking work one spot at a time.
The Sarutahiko painting, on the other hand, had extensive staining.
Normally, we would simply proceed with stain removal—but this case was different. The sunrise depicted at the top of the painting was clearly created with materials unsuitable for mounting.
In mounting work, water is always used—so using pigments that don’t bleed when exposed to moisture is an absolute rule.
However, over the years, we’ve received many works created without this basic consideration, and each time, we’ve had to go through a great deal of trial and error to complete the mounting.
Thanks to those experiences, we immediately recognized that this pigment was highly unstable.
In fact, even before we had begun any actual work, we noticed that the colors were already beginning to bleed slightly.
We knew right away that if we proceeded with regular mounting procedures, the pigment would most likely bleed heavily or become smudged—it was clear we were facing a serious risk.
As suspected, our preliminary test revealed that the red pigment in the sunrise area wasn’t fixed at all.
And to make matters worse, we had to do stain removal on top of that. Stain removal involves large volumes of water—not just moistening the work, but literally washing it with water. For a painting that bleeds even with a tiny amount of water, this was a nightmare scenario.
We explained the risks and extra fees to the client, who kindly agreed to proceed. But in all honesty, we were 99% inclined to decline. The risk and labor were immense.
Even if we could get the pigment to set in a test, we had no way of knowing how it would respond during the full stain removal process. Still, knowing that no one else would take on such a job, and remembering the trust this client had placed in us, we decided to proceed—after making clear that we could not take responsibility if anything went wrong.
Restoration Begins
We began the restoration work. For the tiger scroll, removing the insect droppings took time, but overall, things proceeded on schedule without any major issues.
The real challenge, however, was the color-fixing of the sunrise portion on the Sarutahiko scroll.
We applied fixative again and again—and again and again—from both the front and back, but the pigment showed no signs of stabilizing.
We tried changing the chemical agents, experimenting with different techniques, but we just couldn’t feel that satisfying moment of, “Yes, this one’s working.”
It was an exhausting and frustrating process.
Even getting it to a “maybe it’s working?” level took many times longer than usual.
That uncertain mental state—where you’re unsure if the pigment is really set—is something only those who’ve stood at the mounting table will truly understand.
At that point, it seemed stable… but the real test—the stain removal process—was still ahead.
Would the pigment survive it? We just weren’t sure.
In all honesty, this was the least stable pigment we’ve ever worked with. (And honestly, we’d usually refuse a job like this—too much risk, not worth the trouble.)
When we finally and very cautiously began the stain removal, the result was what we feared: perfect fixation was impossible.
But we managed to process the unfixed areas in a way that made them far less noticeable.
This kind of delicate judgment can only be made through experience, and although it was difficult, we somehow managed to complete the stain removal and continue on to the mounting process.
Mounting Complete
Despite the extreme difficulty, we successfully restored both works to a displayable state.
The client was very pleased and said, “Excellent work, thank you!”—words that made all our efforts worthwhile. Though this project nearly broke us, the client’s satisfaction made it all meaningful.
At ART NOMURA, we accept scroll mounting and restoration projects not only from within Japan but from all over the world. If you have a project you’d like to discuss, please feel free to reach out.
