Method of restoring paper paintings and calligraphic works

A method of restoring machine-made paper paintings and calligraphic works, which comprises:

• a first restoration preparation process in which a machine-made paper stock consisting of a Japanese paper stock produced from at least one of Broussonetia kazinoki sieb, Edgeworthia papyrifera sieb or wood pulp or a combination of said machine-made paper stock and an auxiliary stock consisting of waste paper pulp is blended in water having a pH value of about 6-8, and the resulting blend is mixed with an adhesive to prepare a raw restoration liquid which is placed in a vat;
• a second restoration preparation process in which (1) a water-dipped filtering sheet member having a unidirectional flexibility and a filtering function is fitted into a paper-making frame;
• (2) a cloth or a flexible and water-permeable paper-making sheet is laid over the filtering sheet member without forming cockles, or laid over the filtering sheet member and then made cockleless, and (3) a target paper work to be restored is laid over the cloth or paper-making sheet in such a manner that when the target paper work has one surface painted or handwritten, the printed or handwritten surface is placed facing the cloth or paper-making sheet, and the target paper work is dampened and made cockleless by using a brush or spray means;
• and
• a restoration finishing process in which (1) a paper-making operation is performed by soaking the paper-making frame prepared in said second restoration preparation process into the raw restoration liquid in the vat prepared in said first restoration preparation process, so that the restoration fibers included in the raw restoration liquid are filled into a damaged portion of the target paper work to be restored;
• (2) after the paper-making operation, the paper-making frame is removed for dewatering and drying, the filtering sheet member to which the cloth or paper-making sheet and the target paper work are adhered closely in a laminated state is removed from the paper-making frame while it is damp-dried and a pressure paper sheet is laid over the target paper work to make the latter cockleless;
• (3) only the filtering sheet member is removed and a lamination of the cloth or paper-making sheet, the pressure paper sheet and the target paper work sandwiched between the former two is applied to a flat surface and spread flat for drying, (4) either the cloth or paper-making sheet or the pressure paper sheet is removed from said dried lamination;
• (5) the whole remaining lamination is dampened and an adhesive is coated locally over the boundary of the damaged portion of the target paper work for re-dampening and both surfaces of the lamination are made flat and cockleless for final finishing;
• and (7) the lamination is applied to the flat surface and spread flat again for drying, after which the cloth or paper-making sheet and the pressure paper sheet are removed from the lamination including said target paper work.