JSPS-IIAS International Symposium Held in Kyoto

On 29-30 October, the “JSPS-IIAS Joint International Symposium on Conservation Technology for Cultural Heritages” was held at the International Institute for Advanced Studies (IIAS). The symposium was jointly organized by IIAS and JSPS’s Frontier Research and Development Committee on Conservation Technologies for Cultural Properties.

Frontier R&D Committees are established within JSPS under three-year periods of support. They are mandated to conduct surveys and studies on research topics that are of a nature that enjoins deeper investigation or that are on the leading edge of fields envisioned to be of growing importance to the academic and/or industrial sectors.

In April 2007, the Frontier R&D Committee on Conservation Technologies for Cultural Properties was established to study the fungal communities that form around old tombs and to develop new sensing technologies. The committee has succeeded in developing highly-sensitive environmental sensing instruments that are both portable and relatively inexpensive, which it has used to make site surveys of the condition of cultural properties, particularly local Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Concurrently, the committee has achieved important scientific results in its research on the eco-systems of soil-born fungi. This symposium reported, while celebrating, the committee’s accomplishments over the nearly three years of its operations.

Opened with a congratulatory message by JSPS president Prof. Motoyuki Ono, the two-day symposium attracted the participation of some 50 researchers, many of them highly distinguished, from both in and outside Japan. Lectures were given on such topics as the preservation status of mural paintings in ancient tombs, technologies for preserving cultural properties, and international cooperation in cultural property preservation.

Spurring dynamic discussions and lively exchanges of views, the symposium proved to be both an interesting and informative experience for all the participants.

- University-Industry Cooperation and Research Program Division