About the Talk
Books from the Edo period (1603-1868) were almost exclusively printed on fine Japanese paper by woodblock, and many were bound in paper covers that were intricately decorated by embossing, burnishing, multi-colored printing and other decorative techniques. In contrast to the attractive appearance of these covers, they were made of layers of gray colored, lowest-quality paper containing hairs, dust, and other impurities. The low-quality paper was a recycled paper that was made from waste paper, while traditional Japanese paper was made from tree bark fibers such as kozo (paper mulberry). How were those papers and covers made? Who made them? Do certain physical characteristics such as decorations and raw materials reflect certain periods of time or subject matter? As a trained conservator, I study the history of materials, their production methods, and their chemistry in order to halt, mitigate, or retard the degradation of the artifacts. I will talk about rarely documented and researched recycled papermaking and book cover production from a conservator’s perspective. My presentation intends to encourage cross-disciplinary conversations among technical experts, scientists, and humanities scholars.
Speaker Bio
Since 2017, Kazuko Hioki serves as the preservation librarian at the University of Hawai’i Mānoa Library. A book and paper conservator, she earned an M.I.L.S. with a Certificate of Advanced Study in Conservation from the University of Texas at Austin, and was trained and employed as a conservator at various institutions including the University of Kentucky Libraries, the New York Public Library, and the Library of Congress. Before her career in conservation, she was a chemist at the Sumitomo Chemical Company in Osaka, having completed a Bachelor of Agriculture degree focused on pesticide chemistry from Kobe University. More information about her research can be found here: http://works.bepress.com/kazukohioki/
