On Monday Haruko took me on another one of her interviews, this time to an art restorer. After we found parking, we walked down a narrow alley to the workshop. We found a husband and wife team waiting. They were soft-spoken, calm people, at work on a Japanese scroll when we walked in.

Haruko talked to them for a bit, translated for my benefit. The painting was about 150 years old. They had bleached the paper from a dull brown to a sparkling white, revealing incomprehensible calligraphy - perhaps there were experts in Kochi City who could read it - and a simple picture of Mt. Fuji and a snail. The painting was by a famous artist, and was worth maybe 10, 000, 000 yen, a lot of money.

I think they showed us the first stage of the mounting process. First, they sprayed the entire scroll with a fine mist of water. Then, they brushed the edges of the scroll with handmade glue - they are, apparently, one of a handful of restorers using old fashioned, natural products for their work. The glue itself took ten years to make - don't ask me why - and could only be produced with water collected on the coldest day of the year. I'm sure some of the details were lost in translation. They laid thick paper along the edges of the silk scroll, before brushing thick sheets of paper with more glue, which were layed down across the length and breadth of the scroll - to reinforce it I think. Then, they hung it up to dry, which takes about a month.

The process involved a lot of brushes and banging about. Still, it was careful work; even the thick paper was fragile. They said they could only do the work if they were in good spirit, as the final product was affected by their mood. They never worked if they were fighting.

Afterward, the wife brought Haruko and I a cup of coffee sweetened with honey. I asked if they had any paintings of their own, at which point they brought out a scroll, maybe 150 years old, by Kawada Shoryo, a famous Kochi-ken painter and friend of John Manjiro, the man who 'discovered' Japan, just prior to Commodore Perry. They said they found it at a garage sale, recognized it as an original and rare Kawada Shoryo, and bought it. Most likely the painting is priceless. They said a lot of people - most, in fact - buy painting that are, in fact, fake. They never tell customers that, though, or they wouldn't have many customers.

Soon enough it was time for us to get going. There was a lot of bowing and a chorus of thank-you's, and then I was back in the boring old office.