How do you recreate a temple’s doors?

How do you recreate a temple’s doors?

Very carefully—with surgical masks, if you’re the technicians who are hunkered down in the MIA’s Visual Resources area as part of the Tsuzuri Project to preserve Japan’s cultural heritage. For 10 days, through September 17, they’ll use a super-high-resolution Canon camera on a robotic tripod to photograph 16 sliding doors from the 17th century, section by section, that were once in the Daikakuji Temple in Kyoto. Back in Japan, they’ll stitch the images together, print the composite photos, and place them in antique-looking door frames. The temple will have its sliding doors again—or something exactly like them—next spring.

—Tim Gihring, editor

September 14, 2013

Photo: Charles Walbridge