Training in traditions

A Frenchman recently hired at a long-standing art restoration company in Kyoto has taken his first steps toward becoming an expert in restoring Japanese artwork.
Yoan Rosenziveig, 36, from Nice, has devoted himself to improving his skills since he was employed in September last year at Usami Shokakudo Company in Shimogyo Ward, Kyoto. The company was established in the middle of the Edo period (1603-1867).
After acquiring the skills and techniques to restore Western artworks to their original state at European universities, he came to Japan to learn the restoration of Japanese art, as well as the Japanese language.
“I want to be a great restorer in Kyoto,” Rosenziveig says with a smile.
Rosenziveig studied the restoration of Western paintings at art schools in France and obtained a master’s degree at a national university in Belgium. He specialises in restoring paper. As a student, he restored preparatory drawings for fresco paintings at museums.
He first became interested in Japan watching Japanese anime on TV in France as a child.
Durable Japanese washi paper is often used in When restoring Western artworks and that piqued the young man’s interest in visiting Japan. He arrived in 2012 and was referred to Usami Shokakudo by an acquaintance, who knew that the firm accepted foreign trainees.
He told the company’s president Naohachi Usami, 58, that he wanted to study the skills and techniques to restore Japanese artworks, but the quota of trainees to be accepted into the firm was already filled. Rosenziveig also did not have enough knowledge of Japanese art, so Usami suggested he receive training from a former employee of the firm who was living in the United States. Rosenziveig studied the basics of Japanese artwork restoration at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts for a year from 2014.
 “The feel of the paper and the quality of paint were totally different from the ones for Western paintings. Everything I saw was novel to me,” Rosenziveig says.
Returning to Japan in 2015, he attended a Japanese language school for six months. He studied hard and improved his Japanese to the point where he could have everyday conversations in Japanese.
He again visited the Kyoto company last year and expressed his wish to work there. The president was so impressed by Rosenziveig’s enthusiasm and the improvement in his skills that he decided to employ him as a regular employee.
Currently, 15 employees work at the firm. As Rosenziveig is new at the company, he is in charge of apprenticeship work, such as restoration for picture mountings and preparing restoration tools for senior workers.
“He comes into work before everyone else each day, cleans the streets around the office building and so on. He matches the Japanese in terms of diligence,” Usami says. “I’m certain he will acquire high-level artistic skills.”
Rosenziveig said Japanese artworks are exceptional, as they look like they were easily drawn but show skill and ideas in minute sections.
“I want to be a qualified restorer by learning from senior restorers,” he says.