About Shōendō
Preservation of Japanese Painting
Based in France, the studio specializes in the conservation and restoration of Japanese paintings. It also treats Korean and Chinese works, though Japanese painting remains the core of its practice.
The care of hanging scrolls (kakejiku), folding screens (byōbu) or handscrolls (makimono) requires expert knowledge and manual skills that only long years of training can provide. This is what Shōendō offers to clients across Europe.
The name Shōendō (松燕堂) comes from training at Usami Shōkakudō (松鶴堂) in Kyoto. Following the tradition of inheriting one character from the master’s workshop, Shō (松, pine) was kept and paired with En (燕, swallow), echoing the crane (鶴) of Shōkakudō.
The Studio
Traditional Japanese Craftsmanship, Contemporary Conservation Standards
Shōendō values the traditions of Japanese painting conservation, restoration, and mounting while remaining attentive to the latest technical advances and conservation standards.
The Shōendō studio recreates the environment of a Japanese conservation workshop. Work is done primarily on tatami mats and low workbenches, a traditional setup that provides ideal conditions for these delicate tasks.
Materials are chosen with care from trusted Japanese makers and suppliers: handmade washi papers of various kinds, pure silk fabrics such as kinran (woven with gold thread) and donsu (damask), among others. The adhesives used in scroll and screen conservation (wheat starch paste, aged paste or furunori, seaweed glue or funori, and animal glue or nikawa) are all natural materials with a long history of safe use in art conservation.
The expertise of a Japanese conservation workshop, in Europe.
Conservation Advisory & Technical Reports
Specialist Expertise Beyond the Studio
In addition to hands-on restoration work, Shōendō provides specialist advice and technical reports for collectors, galleries, auction houses, and institutions dealing with Japanese and East Asian paintings, remotely or on site. It also offers talks and workshops for institutions and collectors on the safe handling and care of these works, and on recognizing when a specialist’s intervention is needed.
Assessments may be based on direct examination or detailed photographic documentation and may address materials, structure, condition, mounting, and previous interventions.
Technical observations may also contribute to the understanding of a work’s possible period, history, or consistency with a proposed hypothesis. They do not constitute formal authentication, attribution, dating, or valuation.
Specialist knowledge for the decisions that matter.
The Conservator
Yoan Rosenziveig
A book on Japanese prints and paintings sparked his fascination with Japan and its culture while he was still young. A passion for art and history led him to study at La Cambre (Brussels), where he obtained a Master’s degree in Paper Conservation and discovered how deeply Japanese materials and techniques have shaped Western practices.
Following his degree, he spent a year at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, working alongside master conservators trained in Japan on the restoration of folding screens and scrolls. A Japan Foundation fellowship then brought him to Japan to deepen his language studies, after which he joined the prestigious Usami Shokakudo studio in Kyoto. There he spent nearly eight years immersed in traditional Japanese conservation and mounting, working on a great many pieces both in the studio and on site at temples.
Drawing on this experience, he returned to Europe and founded Shōendō in Nice in 2025. As one of the very few fully trained experts outside of Japan, he offers European museums and collectors a standard of care previously available only in Japan.