Artwork at Museum Created Using Traditional Japanese Technique Gets Year-End Cleaning

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:24 JST, January 7, 2026

IMIZU, Toyama — Kote-e artisans carefully removed a year’s worth of dust from a kote-e work at a museum in Imizu, Toyama Prefecture, during the year-end cleaning around the end of December.

Kote-e is a traditional Japanese handicraft in which plaster is layered using trowels of various sizes to create 3D images and patterns.

The Kosugi district in the city has long been a center for kote-e. It is also the birthplace of plasterer Genzo Takeuchi (1886-1942), whose works adorned a VIP room at the Imperial Hotel and other buildings.

Katsunori Ishizaki and his son, both kote-e artists from Nanto in the prefecture, brushed away accumulated dust from the work titled “Soryu” (Double dragons), which is more than 17 meters wide and features two white plaster dragons facing each other. The work is one of the largest of its kind in Japan.

In addition, they dusted mica powder onto a namako wall, which features a grid-like pattern created using white plaster, to add shine to the surface.

“We want to make the works as clean as possible so that many people will be able to appreciate them again next year,” Ishizaki said.