Hyōgu Backing
The tools: 1) A smooth surfaced, solid table
2) A drying board of either smooth plywood or veneer
3) A long ruler
4) A piece of backing paper the same quality as your work, but slightly thicker and larger in area
5) Another piece like (4)
6) A brush for glue, noribake
7) A soft, clean brush for water, mizubake
8) A brush with hard bristles, shirobake
9) Glue, a thin cow gum or any water based glue is good. Specialists use a glue called shōfu. Boiled wheatflour is sometimes used as well.
10) Several old sheets of newsprint.
The method:
Firstly if the work is not your own, it is important to know whether the work to be backed was written using a proper inkstick sumi or with prepared ink bokujū. Sumi is made of soot and a natural glue called either nikawa or funori. Japanese make this glue from cows’ or horses’ bones and the Chinese from whale bone. Japanese ink sets more firmly than Chinese which means it is less likely to bleed when dampened. Bokujū has improved so much recently that better brands run hardly at all. Nevertheless here is a note of the chances of their running: Ordinary prepared inks, 50%; special or very thick bokujū, 10%; Chinese inksticks, 5-10% and Japanese inksticks, less than 5%, If you have a work done by a specialist, he will warn you of the possibility of its running and may even go so far as to taste the sumi with the tip of his tongue to ascertain its origin.
Avoid using Western paper and Oriental papers together as Western paper is much less absorbent. Prepare sufficient sheets of thin backing paper before starting. If the work is large or is made of several pieces of paper, backing papers must be joined ahead of time into a suitable length (see illustration), Take piece A and draw a line with the ruler and water brush as shown. Then gently pull off the piece marked “X”. The tear will be straight, but some fibres of the paper will be left sticking out. These the Japanese call teashi, limbs. Now do the same for piece B. Join pieces of newsprint and place them on your working surface. They ought to extend to an area larger than the size of your work.
Dry newsprint is a must because if the ink on the sheets is still fresh, it will transfer to the backing on your work. Cover the backing paper with a thin coat of glue, about the same consistency as thin cream. If the work to be backed is quite large, place the backing on a single sheet at a time and then add glue to them.
Get the first sheet in place and then proceed to the second. Lift the pieces with the ruler (see illustration). See that the teashi hang downwards and be very careful to join the ends of the papers together in a way that they interlock, not overlap.
Brush all the wrinkles flat, but avoid brushing around the join itself. This spot is best pressed flat with the ruler. Make sure that both pieces of paper are either rough side up or down, not one of each. Dampen the work from behind slightly so that wrinkles are removed and place it on the prepared backing sheets.
Go over the front of the work with a soft, dry brush working out from the center to ensure even contact with the backing and removal of any air pockets. The midway point in the process is pictured at right. Now be certain there is sufficient glue around the border at Z of a slightly thicker mixture.
Lift corners at D and E and transfer everything to the drying board which will have been propped earlier against a wall. Brush the entire picture with the hard bristled brush, remove the newspaper and brush out from the center once more. Any stubborn air pockets still remaining may be removed by pricking them with a pin, A trick of the trade is to lift up the edge of the heragami backing up carefully at this point and blow a little air in between the work and the drying board. This helps it dry quicker. The best quality backings are done with very fine backing paper before repeating the entire process using thicker paper or perhaps silk as in the case of jōfuku. Leave this to dry for a day or two and then remove carefully from the board. Never cut the paper as this will mar the drying board, but slip the blade of a knife under the edge of the paper instead and lift it off. One further tip.
If you are doing the backing yourself, do not press your seal to the work until backing is complete. This is because the ink for the seal is oil based and handling it without smudging is a very difficult procedure for an amateur. Ignore anyone who says it cannot be done because the paper will then be embossed. If the seal is pressed on a fairly hard surface, it makes no difference. The paper is only a millimeter thick.
Points to be careful about:
1) Take care to brush from the center and keep your brush away from the glue at the border because it may be transferred to your work. If you do get a little dab on it it will not harm it, but is just faintly visible,
2) Use only the best brushes as any other will tend to leave stray hairs on the work which do not become evident until later, when it is too late to make corrections. It is possible to remove them carefully with a pin, but a slip may result in a puncture in the work.
3) Holes in a picture. More vigorous calligraphers will occasionally tear the paper they work on either because they have begun with too much ink or have applied too much pressure at a point where several strokes coincide. You will notice that the paper that has been torn from the hole has been crumpled up at the edge of the hole. This can be smoothed back over the hole to restore the completeness of the paper. If the paper was torn away with the sweep of the brush, an attempt may be made to replace the fragment, but that is nothing to worry too much about. This is often evident in pictures at exhibitions. It can also be seen in my work “kuri” If you look closely. If the middle of the hole is missing fashion a simple patch for it so the ends will not tuck under. The thinnest possible paper is best. Cut it so that it is just a fraction larger than the hole, and fray the edges of the patch so no ridge builds up. Then open out the hole from the reverse side, dampen, align the grains of the paper, apply the patch, paste and lay flat before continuing with the process.
4) In a large of work of several pieces of paper inevitably there are slight overlaps. Try nevertheless to avoid any similar overlapping on the backing paper since it will simply make the join all the more evident.
The term hyōgu refers to the same process used to make the hanging scroll works called kakejiku, but the process for this sort of a work is exceedingly difficult and will require a professional. The process described above is a simple hyōgu described by the Japanese as urauchi, lining.
Framing and Exhibiting
Sho Calligraphic Works
Many works are often of a standard size, for instance the shikishi 24cm x 27cm, and attractive frames of dark blue or burgundy mountings with natural or black lacquer frames are available in Japan for these. As shikishi are already on a stiffened board, they can be slipped in and out of the frame and changed according to season. Generally calligraphy is done on thin paper however, and this must be backed in the way explained above to give it strength and remove wrinkles.
Several types of frame are available including steel and wood in various shapes, colours and lacquered hues. Simple black or brown wood or plain steel frames less any embellishment are preferable. The interior of the frame may be lined with silk or perhaps a material