With restoration and conversation works, Japanese experts have revived the shards of a collection of centuries-old porcelain that were kept in an Austrian castle following their destruction by Russian soldiers in World War II.
A specialist was able to restore 31 objects from around 700 shards brought back to Japan. They are currently on display in Japan before they are due to return to Austria in August.
"When I saw the thousands of shards in Loosdorf Castle, I immediately thought, the world must know about this treasure," the well-known Japanese tea ceremony master Machiko Hoshina told Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) in Tokyo.
It is thanks to her initiative that a team of Japanese experts was able to identify several valuable works of art made of traditional Imari porcelain, called ko-Imari ("Old Imari").
Against the backdrop of renewed destruction caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the restoration project initiated by Hoshina carries a special message of peace, the owner of Austria's Loosdorf Castle, Gabriel Piatti, told dpa during a visit to Japan.
The collection of his family's porcelain is on display at the ceramics museum in Saga prefecture on Japan's southern main island of Kyushu, the home of Imari porcelain.
The exhibition, titled "The Tragedy of Loosdorf Castle," is intended as a reminder that war only brings destruction. "But also that the history behind it cannot be destroyed," Piatti told.
At the same time, the works of art restored by the Japanese experts show the "beauty in imperfection," Piatti said. This is precisely what corresponds to "wabi-sabi," the Japanese concept of aesthetics, explained tea ceremony master Hoshina.
It is precisely in the flawed, the imperfect, that beauty lies. And so the exhibition not only shows reassembled objects such as vases, with the cracks on the inside deliberately left visible, but also piles of shards next to them.
For decades, the Piatti family had kept the porcelain from Japan, China and Europe, even after it was destroyed by the Russians, who found the porcelain hidden in the castle cellar.
The porcelain, which the family had collected over generations, was then long relegated to a "shards room" in the castle museum as a memorial against violence and war.
In the meantime, the project started by Hoshina has also aroused the interest of experts in Austria in the Shards Room at Loosdorf Castle. Hoshina hopes for further cooperation opportunities in Europe for Japanese experts.
At the same time, she wants to contribute to a revival of interest in traditional Japanese arts and crafts – not only abroad, but also in Japan.
