A new approach to the conservation and presentation of ukiyo-e prints.

Damaged ukiyo-e are often backed with kozo paper and placed after conservation in matt window mounts. However, backing an ukiyo-e affects its physical nature by adding new materials to it. Matt window mounts are also not historically relevant because they come from the Western tradition of mounting prints. With these issues in mind, a new approach for treating and mounting ukiyo-e was developed at the Tokyo National Museum's department of conservation. The authors describe the technical steps that led to this new approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]