Japanese Art

Facts about Japan

• People first came to Japan about 30,000 years ago. At the time, the main islands were connected to Siberia and Korea by bridges of dry land, so people crossed on foot.
• The ancient Japanese survived for thousands of years, hunting, fishing, and gathering plants. They were skilled weavers, tool makers, and farmers who began cultivating rice in flooded paddy fields.
• Japan is an archipelago, or string of islands, on the eastern edge of Asia. There are four large islands nearly 4,000 smaller islands!
• Almost four-fifths of Japan is covered with mountains. The Japanese Alps run down the center of the largest island, Honshu. The highest peak is Mount Fuji, a cone-shaped volcano considered sacred by many Japanese.
• Japan can be a dangerous place. Three of the tectonic plates that form Earth's crust meet nearby and often move against each other, causing earthquakes. More than a thousand earthquakes hit Japan every year. Japan also has about 200 volcanoes, 60 of which are active.

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Japanese Culture

• The Japanese people have a deep affection for the beauty of the landscape. The ancient Shinto religion says natural features like mountains, waterfalls, and forests have their own spirits, like souls.
• The warm Tsushima Current flows from the south into the Sea of Japan, where it meets a colder current from the north. The mixing of waters makes the seas around Japan very rich in fish and other sea life.
• The Japanese are famous for their willingness to work very hard. Children are taught to show respect for others, especially parents and bosses. They learn to do what's best for their family or company and worry less about their own needs.
• Japanese food is very different from food in Western countries. There is lots of rice, fish, and vegetables, but little meat. With little fat or dairy, this diet is very healthy, which helps Japanese people live, on average, longer than any other people in the world.

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Japanese Art

• We find that the Japanese have had a long and rich history of art that stretches back to ancient times. In fact some of the oldest artifacts known to man belong to the Japanese.
• Brush painting is the preferred art form in Japan. Until modern times, the Japanese wrote with a brush rather than a pen, and their familiarity with brush techniques has made them particularly creative. Paintings are often done on scrolls, long pieces of rolled paper.
• Besides paintings, there are sculptures and ceramics that are considered to be among the finest in the world.
• Other popular Japanese art forms include printmaking, origami (paper folding), ikebana (flower arranging), and manga (comics).

4th Grade - Great Wave

Katsushika Hokusai was born in Edo, what is now Tokyo, in 1760. At age 15 Hokusai began as an apprentice as a woodcut engraver. ��Between 1796 and 1802 he produced a vast number of book illustrations and color prints, perhaps as many as 30,000, that drew their inspiration from the traditions, legends, and lives of the Japanese people. He worked with a driving energy and was quite a showman. He once made a picture that was so enormous that it could only be seen from rooftops. Then he painted two sparrows on a single grain of rice!��Hokusai used forty to fifty different names during his lifetime, since a Japanese artist was allowed to use a new name every time a social position or style of work changed. When he was 72 years old his house burned and many of his notes and drawings were destroyed.��THE GREAT WAVE (In the Hollow of a Wave off the Coast at Kanagawa) - This magnificent and powerful wave is a woodcut print. The wave’s whitecaps curve up and over and numerous finger-like curls pointing downward to the slender boats below with their tiny terrified occupants. The eye is led to snow-capped Mt. Fuji, Japan’s mountain, low and distant behind the turbulent ocean. �

5th Grade - Cherry Blossom Ink Scroll

• Cherry Blossoms are pink and white flowers that grow on trees throughout Japan, most of which bloom for just a couple of days in spring. The Japanese celebrate that time of the year with hanami (cherry blossom viewing parties) under the blooming trees. �
• In Japan, Cherry Blossoms symbolize beauty and the nature of life, and they are an omen of good fortune! Cherry blossoms have been a part of the culture of Japan for over a thousand years and continue to be celebrated through the hanami and art work. �
• Cherry blossoms have been prominent in Japanese art and culture since time unrecorded. The first mention of the blossoms appears in the first history of Japan, written in 712. Because the blossoms are so interwoven throughout symbolism, art and society of Japan, it is likely that these blossoms will be important to the culture as long as the trees continue to bloom each spring.

4th Grade - Gyotaku Fish Prints

• Gyotaku is a traditional form of Japanese fish printing or rubbing, dating from the 1800's."Gyo" means fish and "taku" means rubbing.

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• Gyotaku is a form of printing that began in Japan as a means to measure and record a fisherman's catch. Although gyotaku may have originally served to record the sizes and species of memorable fishing catches, it has since evolved into a highly prized, fine art form. Gyotaku was first introduced to the United States from Japan in an exhibition in 1956 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

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• In order to make a gyotaku print, one places the fish on a flat surface and paints one side with ink or paint. Next, a piece of paper is laid over the ink-covered fish. Finally, one rubs the paper. When the paper is peeled off, it reveals an exact printed replica of the fish.