Karibari

Redwood is not a recommended wood, due to hard and soft annual
growth rings which will lead to splitting problems.

In addition to Masako Koyano's book, Japanese Scroll Paintings, [FAIC, 1979]
there is Jay van Arsdale's, Shoji: How to Design, Build, and Install
Japanese Screens, [Kodansha International, New York, 1988], and for very
useful discussions of the properties of wood, paper, and screens, there is
Kenzo Toishi and Hiromitsu Washizuka's, Characteristics of Japanese Art
that Condition its Care [Japanese Assoc. of Museums, Tokyo, 1987].

At least two videotapes: Karibari: The Preparation of a Japanese
Drying Screen, produced (I believe) by the Public Archives of Canada
in 1986; Dave's Pond: Mounting an Oversize Watercolor, which I
produced in 1983-4 <URL:http://www.teleport.com/~tcl/>; and a film
produced by the Freer Gallery of Art (date ?) entitled, Art of the
Hyo-Gushi, which shows various aspects of the preparation of a
screen core and methods for pasting and laying paper on the core.

Air dried cedar is one of the best woods, but it is not easy to come
by (I've had a log of Port Orford cedar drying in my garage for a
couple of years and I do not expect it to be ready to cut for
another 2-3 years and then it will dry for another year or so).

I regularly use single panel screens, papered on both sides with
Japanese paper, as a lightweight, dimensionally stable support for
hinging oversize works of art on paper.

I've asked the local shoji maker who prepares my cores to use sugar
pine as it is readily available in this locality, lightweight, low
in resin, and of even density. His charge for producing an
un-papered core is approx. $25/sq. ft.

Jack C. Thompson
Thompson Conservation Lab.
7549 N. Fenwick
Portland, Oregon 97217

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 10:89
                 Distributed: Thursday, April 17, 1997
                       Message Id: cdl-10-89-001
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