• Journal of Conservation Science
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.329-341
• /
• 2012

Magai Wareiishi Jizo (Buddhist statue carved on rock surface) is close to shoreline and a part of rock block is periodically immersed by seawater. Rock material of the Wareiishi-jizo statue is composed mainly of medium or coarse-grained biotite granite and very durable. However, physical properties of the rock have been changed according to the complex interactions of the salt solution and surrounding environment. Exfoliation of the rock surface is a serious condition by salt crystallization. Exfoliation (14.6%) is concentrated on the upper part of the rock block with mainly boundary of seawater as the center. On the other hand, lower part of the rock block show black layers by contaminants deposition. In addition, brown discoloration and biological contaminants is overlapped. Rock surface show high discoloration rate of 50.5% (black discoloration, 29.2% > yellow discoloration, 14.1% > brown discoloration, 4.4% > green discoloration, 2.9%). Upper part of the rock block had a lot of change in the physical properties than lower part that is immersed by seawater. In particular, surface properties of the rock block was very weak state at the boundary surface of seawater permeation.