Urauchi — The Japanese Art of Mounting That Preserves a Painting for Generations

When a painting leaves the studio, it carries more than ink and paper. It carries the work of every hand that has touched it — including hands you will never see.

Urauchi (裏打ち) is the traditional Japanese technique of backing a painting with additional layers of paper and paste. It is one of the oldest preservation methods in Japanese art — practised for centuries across Japan, Korea and China —  and every original painting that leaves my studio has been through this process.

I have spent ten years studying Japanese calligraphy under the guidance of a Japanese artist and calligrapher. Urauchi is not something I learned from a book. It is something I learned slowly, by hand, by error, and by watching what happens to paper and ink over time.

What Urauchi Does
Washi paper, for all its beauty, is thin. A sheet of handmade Washi loaded with Sumi ink will curl, warp and become fragile over time without support. Urauchi changes that.

The process involves carefully adhering thin layers of Japanese paper to the back of the painted surface using a water-based paste. Done correctly, it smooths and stabilizes the painting without flattening or deadening the surface. The brushstrokes remain alive. The texture of the paper remains present. But the work is now structurally sound — protected against humidity, handling and time.

The result is archival quality. A painting that, cared for properly, will outlast us both.

The Paste — Shofu Nori

Everything begins with the paste. Urauchi uses Shofu Nori — a glue made from refined wheat starch, cooked slowly with water until it reaches a smooth, gel-like consistency. Once cooled, it is pressed through a fine sieve to remove any lumps.

The paste is pH-neutral, reversible, and has been used by Japanese conservators and artists for centuries. It does not yellow. It does not harden. If a future conservator needs to undo the mounting — to restore, reback, or remount — they can do so with water. This reversibility is fundamental to archival practice.

I mix mine with water, which keeps it stable in the refrigerator for several days. Applied with a wide, soft goat-hair brush in slow outward strokes, it goes on almost imperceptibly.

The Process — Step by Step

Each mounting session follows the same patient sequence. I typically mount a couple of paintings at a time — which means an entire day given over to this invisible work.

The painted Washi is placed face down on a smooth surface. I lightly moisten the back, then apply the Shofu Nori with a goat-hair brush, working from the centre outward, coaxing out any wrinkles or bubbles without rushing. The backing paper — I use Japanese mulberry paper, cut slightly larger than the artwork — is then laid over the paste-covered surface and pressed smooth with a firmer brush.

Once the two sheets are joined, wheat paste is applied to the edges only, and the whole piece is carefully lifted and stretched onto a flat board to dry. It stays there for two to three days. The paper tightens as it dries, pulling completely flat under its own tension.

When it comes down from the board, the painting is trimmed, signed and sealed with my Hanko — a vermillion red seal of finely ground cinnabar, pressed into the lower corner. Only then is it finished.

Why It Matters
In the Western tradition, paintings on paper are often considered fragile, temporary — works on paper rather than works in their own right. Urauchi challenges that assumption entirely.

The great ink paintings of Japan — many of them hundreds of years old — have survived because of this technique. The paper is backed, sometimes mounted onto silk, sometimes onto a rigid panel, sometimes rolled as a kakejiku scroll. The painting becomes an object as well as an image.

My paintings are delivered flat, Urauchi mounted and mat mounted, ready to frame with or without glas. The backing gives them the weight and presence of a work that is built to last.

A Quiet Kind of Care
There is something that appeals to me about a process that is entirely invisible in the finished work. You cannot see the Urauchi. You feel it — in the way the painting lies flat, in the way it handles, in the quiet confidence of a surface that is not fragile.

It is, in its own way, very wabi-sabi. The most important work is the work no one sees.

Each original painting is Urauchi mounted and ships worldwide from Stockholm — Shop Original Artwork