Crowdfunding restauration folding screen Kawahara Keiga

Museum Volkenkunde has acquired a rare and valuable masterpiece: the only known folding screen to have been decorated by the Japanese painter Kawahara Keiga (1786-circa 1860). Because of the extreme levels of detail he incorporated in his painting, Keiga is often called ‘the photographer without a camera’. The screen’s size makes this work particularly unusual, for the depiction of Nagasaki Bay spans eight panels totalling more than four and a half metres in width. The small island of Deshima is depicted in the centre. For centuries Deshima served as a trading post for the Dutch in Japan. They were the only Europeans granted access to Japan. In addition, there was a Chinese trading post, depicted by Keiga on the left of the screen. This masterpiece effectively represents the biggest representation of the international relations Japan conducted via Nagasaki, one of the reasons why the screen has such historical significance.

The work is over 180 years old, and time has left its mark. Normally a Japanese folding screen such as this would have been completely taken apart after a century and subsequently remounted. But with this screen that hasn’t been done. Now each of its constituent parts --  the wooden framework and the eight panels; the various intermediate layers of paper and the silk painting – requires restoration using rare Japanese materials and special techniques.