to TEACHINGRT WITH THE POWER OOOF OBJECTS Smithsonian Institution January/February 1997 JAPAN: Images of a People Inside Lesson Plan Take-Home Page in English/Spanish Subjects Art Geography Social Studies Grades 4–9 Publication of Art to Zoo is made possible through the generous support of the Brother International Corporation. CONTENTS Background Essay 1 Page 3 COVER PHOTO This is a detail from a screen painted in the seventeenth Lesson Plan Step 1 Page 5 Detail from Cherry Blossoms century by Japanese artist at Ueno Park Hishikawa Moronobu depicting Activity Page 1 Page 6 Six-fold screen one of Tokyo’s most famous By Hishikawa Moronobu (1618–94) seasonal attractions: cherry Lesson Plan Step 2 Page 7 Ukiyo-e school, Edo period, blossoms in Ueno Park. To this seventeenth century day visitors throng to the park in Activity Page 2A Page 8 Color and gold powder on paper the springtime to sit under the Freer Gallery of Art accession cherry trees with their friends, Activity Page 2B Page 9 number F06.267 eat a picnic, and watch the 180 x 382.2 cm (70 7/8 x 150 1/2”) delicate petals swirl in the Activity Page 2C Page 10 breeze. Background Essay 2 Page 11 Lesson Plan Step 3 Page 12 Take-Home Page 1 Page 13 Take-Home Page 2 Page 14 Resources Page 15 Art to Zoo’s purpose is to help teachers bring into You may request a their classrooms the educational power of museums large-print or disk and other community resources. version of Art to Zoo Art to Zoo draws on the Smithsonian’s hundreds by writing to the of exhibitions and programs—from art, history, and address listed on the science to aviation and folklife—to create classroom- back cover or by faxing ready materials for grades four through nine. to (202) 357-2116. Each of the four annual issues explores a single topic through an interdisciplinary, multicultural approach. The Smithsonian invites teachers to duplicate Art to Zoo materials for educational use. JAPAN: Images of a People Japanese art—beautiful but mysterious? Demystify some examples of Japanese painting and help your students better understand and appreciate the culture that produced them with this issue of Art to Zoo. The lessons have been adapted from materials developed by the education department of the Smithsonian Institution’s Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the two national museums of Asian art. (See page 15 for information on how to obtain their materials.) After learning how to look at paintings, your students can make paper screens that resemble Japanese screens. But first, the following information about the country can help you place the art lessons within a larger social studies unit on Japan. Geography land is mountainous, leaving spring (March to May); May, respectively; the Japan is a crescent-shaped only the coastal areas for summer (June to September) lotus in August; the chrysan- archipelago of four large and large cities, industrial with hot and humid condi- themum (Japan’s national more than a thousand small development, and farming. tions; and fall (October to flower) in November; and the islands. The large islands are Because of Japan’s November). Much rain falls plum in February. Hokkaido, the northernmost; location in an unstable area during the spring, summer, Honshu, the largest; Shikoku; of the Earth’s crust, earth- and fall. The precipitation Rice Growing and and Kyushu. The combined quakes and tremors occur starts first in the south and Processing area of the islands is about there frequently. Undersea moves north during June and Rice cultivation was 145,000 square miles, which quakes can cause destructive July, and destructive tropical introduced to Japan from is larger than the state of tidal waves called tsunami. storms called typhoons occur other Asian countries by the California or the country of Some volcanic mountains are in September and October. fifth century B.C. Today, rice Italy. If it were superimposed still active, and there are grows on almost half of the over the East Coast of the many hot springs, which the Vegetation cultivated land in Japan. United States, the group of Japanese people use for Because of the hot, The climate in most areas islands would cover a space recreational and medicinal humid summers there, more of Japan allows for one crop from Maine to Florida. purposes. than 17,000 varieties of of rice per year. Japan is bordered on the plants grow in Japan. Many Long ago the Japanese north by the Sea of Okhotsk, Climate trees thrive, including believed the rice plant was on the east by the Pacific Just as the climate from broad-leafed evergreens a gift from the gods. For Ocean, and on the west by Maine to Florida varies, so such as camellia, deciduous hundreds of years the diffi- the Tsushima Strait, the Sea does the climate vary from beech and oak, and conifers. cult work of growing rice of Japan, and the East China the northernmost to the Bamboo grows on Honshu was done by hand, but now Sea. No part of Japan is southernmost islands of and on the islands to the much is done by machine. more than one hundred miles Japan. Most of Japan has south. Many flowering plants However, the number of from the sea. Most of the four seasons: winter flourish: azaleas and tree hours of labor per acre is still (December to February), peonies bloom in April and very high, about 330 hours with heavy snow only on per acre in 1975. This is Hokkaido and Honshu; about forty times the number Art to Zoo Japan: Images of a People January/February 1997 3 of hours of labor needed per Architecture and Furniture byobu, separate the area into wear wide-legged trousers acre for the production of Japanese architecture rooms as necessary. Floor called hakama under a short corn in the United States. emphasizes the use of natural coverings include rice-straw kimono. The most formal Farmers start rice seeds in materials and the combina- mats called tatami. Tatami kimono are black garments small plots of dry land, but tion of interior and exterior are a standard size: six feet decorated with white, the plants need to grow in space through the use of slid- long, three feet wide, and miniature family crests (one shallow water, so they build ing screens as doors and win- two inches thick. As a result, on the back, one on each of low walls to form a paddy dows. Gardens are a part of rooms are measured by the the sleeves, and one on each around a field. Pipes bring the design of most buildings. number of mats they hold, side of the chest). The crest water from a nearby river to The design of stilt-raised not in feet and inches. designs are usually circular flood the field artificially. buildings originated from the Standard rooms measure or square and are derived After three or four weeks, style of architecture used in eight, six, or four-and-a-half from flowers, plants, birds, farmers transplant the young ancient granaries. Steep mats. A bed, called a futon, animals, and many other plants to the paddy. The fruit, roofs with wide eaves were consists of two mattresses subjects. a grain, is at the top of the designed to shed heavy rains. that can be folded up and A summer kimono made stalk. When the rice is ripe, The multi-storied towers, stored during the day. of light cotton is called it resembles the oat plant and called pagodas, developed Families use a low table and yukata. Winter kimono are is golden yellow. from the finial decorations cushions for dining and can woolen. Special socks (tabi), Farmers drain the paddy found on the tops of Indian push the furniture aside at which are divided between to harvest the rice. They stupas, mound-shaped other times. the big toe and the rest of the cut the stalks, tie them in structures built to house Most homes contain a toes, cover the feet. Over the bundles, and hang them up religious relics, usually tokonoma, a niche for dis- socks go thong-type sandals, to dry. When the bundles are related to Buddha. playing art work, a flower which can be worn on dry, they thresh (beat) the Although there are now arrangement, or both. Many either foot. rice and winnow it (toss it in high-rise apartments in people change the display Adapted from an essay the air) to separate the grain Japan, traditional Japanese seasonally or more often. by Nancy Hague Lyons and (the part that is eaten) from houses have only one or Sarah Ridley in Japan: the outer brown husk. Finally two stories and no basement. Clothing Images and Words. the harvesters store the grain They use space to the fullest; Today most Japanese wear in bags. Rice is Japan’s often the same room com- Western-style staple food and the plant’s bines living room, dining clothing but may choose the straw becomes part of many room, and bedroom. Instead traditional kimono for special useful products such as hats, of solid walls, sliding paper occasions. The kimono is a sandals, floor mats (tatami), screens, called fusuma, and floor-length robe held wine (sake), and food for folding screens, called together by a sash at the livestock. Huge ropes made waist. Men’s sashes are of rice straw decorate narrow, women’s sashes, entrances to shrines of the called obi, are wide. For Shinto religion. formal occasions, men wear kimono in dark shades and women wear very colorful and beautifully embroidered kimono.