The estimated 200-year-old wood and paper paintings formed part of the Japanese house, which was brought back to Saumarez Park in around 1880. It stood there until after the German Occupation, when it was acquired by the States.
Paper conservator Lisa Oxenden-Wray, from Jersey, has been in the island working on the 12 large screens and several smaller pieces.
‘I’ve never worked on something quite like this before. The craft of paper conservation is actually Japanese, so it has been really nice for me,’ she said.
The conservation work involved mostly repairing tears and holes as well as insect damage, including small specks of spider excrement from the front of the paintings.
‘It’s a traditional glue I use, Japanese wheat starch paste made from ingredients bought in Chinatown Soho. It’s actually edible, I cook it myself. The difficulty is getting it to the right temperature. I also use Japanese brushes, a scalpel and magnifying glass.
‘In some places it’s in quite good condition, in other places not so much.
‘There is quite a lot of gold leaf as well, which is easy to clean with water and cotton wool,’ she said.
The screens were brought over to the island from Japan by James St Vincent de Saumarez in around 1880. Both a Buddhist temple and house were dismantled and shipped back to the estate, now Saumarez Park, while de Saumarez was working there for the British Diplomatic Service. Once they arrived in Guernsey, upon finding the instructions for reassembling the two were in Japanese, a Japanese carpenter named Mat San was employed by de Saumarez to assemble them and lived in the Japanese house, along with the screens, during that time.
The screens all feature common themes of the four elements and Mrs Oxenden-Wray hopes the whole Japanese-themed exhibition next year will inspire islanders.
‘Hopefully lots of people will just want to hang out in the museum and be in its presence,’ she said.
An extensive collection of Japanese art from private and public collections will feature in the exhibition at Guernsey Museums from 29 May to 3 September 2019.
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