Conservation of a Japanese Palanquin

Follow V&A Conservators as they treat an elaborately decorated Japanese palanquin in our collection. Known as a ‘norimono’ in Japanese, meaning ‘thing to ride’, this box-like enclosed chair would have carried a bride of high social-rank to the groom’s home after their wedding. Conservation work included stabilising areas of lifting laquer on the surface decoration, which had been beautifully created using the ‘maki-e’ technique, meaning ‘sprinkled picture’. Now fully restored, the palanquin is on display in the V&A’s Toshiba Gallery of Japanese Art, for the first time in many years.