V&A brings Japanese craftsmanship back to life for gallery reopening

From 700-year-old swords and 19th-century 'living doll' to Hello Kitty cooker, army of conservators have painstaking revived museum collection Even V&A staff who have lived with him for years find him extremely sinister. The "living doll" is among hundreds of objects, from a towering 13th-century Buddhist statue to minute beads and toggles with decoration barely visible to the naked eye, which have been through painstaking conservation work before the reopening of the museum's Japanese gallery t...