Fountain Restoration in Tokyo

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Fountain Restoration in Tokyo

A Successful Project With Surprises!

Arts Management Services LLC was asked to restore this Japanese fountain to its original 1929 look.

Tokyo fountain

The fountain is located in the back yard of the US Ambassador’s residence, one of the most important properties in the history of U.S. diplomacy.

It’s among the first residences specifically built as a U.S. ambassador’s home. More importantly, this is where, at the end of World War II, Emperor Hirohito met with General Douglas MacArthur and renounced his divinity, ending the influence of Japan’s imperial family on the world stage. Apart from historical significance, this quiet residence with its spacious garden sits in the heart of busy Tokyo.

The large circular fountain pool is lined with a distinctive pattern of colorful tile that shimmers in the shallow water. The central bronze urn is believed to have come from an ancient royal temple where large vessels, usually made of wood, catch and conserve rainwater. Its surface is beautifully aged with brilliant shades of orange and green oxidation.

cracked Tokyo tiles

The fountain has many wide and long cracks from many earthquakes and tremors, large and small, over it’s 100 years. The cracks have been filled with silicone, leaving unsightly remains of the damage such as cracked tiles and large voids. In addition, several ugly elements were added over the years such as a stainless steel band of lights and a ‘lobster pot’ of a metal grate protecting a water fixture as seen in the image above. Finally, the pipes feeding water to the pool and fountain spraying from the center of the urn werer corroded and leaking excessively. 

To begin the project I met with several experts to plan a course of action to address these problems. First, I found  Japanese artisans capable and willing to create matching tile. Then I spoke with engineers experienced with repairing concrete tunnels damaged by seismic events – Tokyo averages 6 tremors per year and a serious damaging one every five – to determine the best way to repair the concrete foundation under the pool. And finally, I spoke with plumbers about a way to replace underground pipe by boring through the soil using water pressure, rather than digging up the entire fountain. 

Once all the estimates are gathered and final decisions made, I assemble materials, people, and equipment for what looks to be a 2-3 week project scheduled for April or May.

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Restoration Options

Several options are on the table. One involves removing the entire existing surface of the tile and replacing it with a very hard 4″ thick ‘bowl’ of reinforced concrete so that when an earthquake occurs, the bowl doesn’t crack but rather moves over its foundation.
 
Another option is to leave the existing structure intact and just replace the cracked tile.
 
Yet another option is to create concrete facsimiles from a silicone mold and paint them to blend in with existing and original tiles of soft green, blue, black, orange, and white.

Restored historic Tokyo fountain

The option chosen after much discussion is to fill the cracks and paint over the faux tiles, allowing crack to continue as they will. This is the least expensive option and one that stops water from leaking – fresh water is an expensive commodity in Tokyo and an increasingly important focus of conservation all over the world. Corroded pipes would be replaced. Lights would be removed and instead placed on surrounding rooftops to achieve the same effect of illuminating the fountain for evening events. 

Surprising Discovery

It was a two-week project and completely successful.

The most exciting part of this project was the urn, unusual for several reasons. First, during World War II all such metal was reclaimed by the Japanese government for use in the creation of ships, planes, and munitions. So no such metal object of this age should exist. Turns out that because it was on embassy grounds (this residence is located right beside the US Embassy), it was sovereign territory respected by the Japanese government even during wartime when the US was an enemy. Thus the urn remained untouched.

Japanese bronze urnThe other unusual feature of the urn was the kangi or Japanese writing on the urn. Digging into this writing revealed the original artisan’s name. Digging further with the help of the Japanese bronze labor organization, we discovered where the urn was created, a company and district in Tokyo that long ago ended operations and was absorbed into another company. Digging even further we found two great granddaughters of the craftsman who created the urn. We contacted them. They were overjoyed to hear of their ancestor’s work and that this still survived. We invited them to a special event to see their ancestor’s urn and what a special time it was. Take a look at the following video about it.     

https://www.magisto.com/album/video/fHYsAl1bCAd8ISEGDmEwCXx7

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