Tsuzuri Project (Official Title: Cultural Heritage Inheritance Project), launched in March 2007, was organized by the Kyoto Culture Association (NPO) and supported by Canon Inc., as part of the association’s ongoing cultural property preservation. With a combination of Canon’s digital technology and traditional craftsmanship in Kyoto, we have created high resolution facsimiles of cultural properties, such as folding screens and sliding door paintings, which our ancestors left us.
In the projects, we take digital images of cultural properties using Canon’s digital camera and before they are printed by large format printers, the images are processed using Canon's unique precision color correction technology. After the process, traditional crafts are applied, such as gold leaf and mounting, to complete near-perfect replications of the original works. By using high resolution facsimiles, the Project makes it possible for the original works to be kept in more favorable environments, thereby preventing deterioration and ensuring that cultural heritage will be passed down to future generations.
Every aspect of the beauty of the original work is reproduced, from its subtle texture variations developed by age, to the feel of the original.
High resolution facsimiles are completed with traditional craftsmanship.
The project aims at offering people of all over the world more opportunities to know Japanese culture and arts by promoting creation and use of high resolution facsimiles of cultural properties. Those facsimiles are donated to such as owners of the original works, museums, universities, city or prefectural authorities, and also temples and shrines that owned the original works before they have been owned in other countries. In addition, the facsimiles provide a greater number of people with the opportunity to experience cultural heritage, for instance, they are used as learning materials for school children to learn Japanese history, arts and culture, and also they are displayed instead of original properties.
