An 18th century Japanese scroll has been restored to its original condition in Edinburgh.

On Tuesday, representatives of the Sumitomo Foundation, a Japanese cultural organisation that paid for the work, saw it for the first time.

The 300-year-old hand-painted scroll lay undiscovered in Edinburgh's Central Library until 2012.

Following the £40,000 restoration, the rare artwork will go on display to the public in 2019.

Entitled Theatres of the East, Furuyama Moromasa's 40ft-long scroll depicts a street scene in the theatre district of Edo, Tokyo.

Dr Rosina Buckland, of the National Museum of Scotland, said the work to restore it had been painstaking.

She said: "It's a very complex process that took a total of two years. First the scroll has to be dismantled into its ten constituent sections and then the pigments have to be protected.

"The backing paper is removed and the whole thing is renewed so that structurally it's sound, it's flexible.

"It's 13 metres long, it's a very large piece."