Non-invasive characterization through X-ray fluorescence and neutron radiography of an ancient Japanese lacquer

Oriental lacquer artefacts represent very interesting objects of investigation, involving a huge variety of materials and manufacturing techniques. Lacquers are very attractive not only for their stylistic features but also for understanding the variety of production processes, time evolution, use and artistic applications involved in their manufacturing. Till recently, the research activity on these materials has been mainly based on standard, more or less invasive, analytical methods. With the aim to characterise a nineteenth century Japanese lacquer in a totally non-invasive and non-destructive way, in situ X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and neutron radiography (NR) have been employed. While XRF suggested an identification of the pigments embedded into superficial layers, NR allowed revealing, in a single measurement, the average bulk properties of the sample.