Our 2nd graders have been introduced to the Japanese history of creating hand scrolls. After researching on the Metropolitan Museum of Art's webpage, we came to learn that Japanese paintings come in a variety of ways, including large screens used to partition a room, hanging scrolls that are displayed against a wall, and bound books and albums. The illustrated handscroll or emaki, has traditionally been a format that is particularly used for narrative painting. Like a book, a handscroll is an intimate object that is held in the hands and is ideally viewed by only a few people at a time. Composed of sheets of paper or silk joined horizontally and rolled around a dowel, handscrolls are rolled open one segment at a time, in sections about two feet long. We also spoke about some of the images on the website and how each one told a story. On the MET's page, each of the images accompanied an explanation of the scrolls and what each image means. Before I read them to the class, we tried together to figure out the narrative on each. Cherry Blossoms are one of Japan's most famous tree's and we looked a little further into the meaning of them. We learned that there are several varieties of the cherry blossom tree, and while most of them produce flowering branches full of small pinkish-hued flowers, some of them produce actual cherries. In Japan, the cherry blossom is more than just a beautiful flowering tree. There are thousands upon thousands of cherry blossom trees in Japan, and each year the Japanese people closely anticipate and follow the blossoming of the trees. When the trees are in bloom, people come in large groups with their families and friends to view the flowers and to enjoy festivals with food and music.
The significance of the cherry blossom tree in Japanese culture goes back hundreds of years. In their country, the cherry blossom represents the fragility and the beauty of life. It's a reminder that life is almost overwhelmingly beautiful but that it also short. When the cherry blossom trees bloom for a short time each year in brilliant force, they serve as a visual reminder of how precious life is. So, when Japanese people come together to view the cherry blossom trees and marvel at their beauty, they aren't just thinking about the flowers themselves, but also about the larger meaning and deep cultural tradition the cherry blossom tree.
The students were then given a 9" x 18" piece of white paper, they used a wash of watercolors or chalk pastels in 3 different sections to create a sunset. Once their paintings were dry they were given "india ink", which is what was used to make Japanese Handscrolls, (in our case just some black tempera paint and water mixed together) a straw and an eye dropper. They used the eye dropper to squeeze out little puddles of "ink" onto their paper and blew into the straws to create the branches of their own cherry blossom trees. They then will mix together some red and white paint and paint on their flowers to their branches. A finishing touch will be to add the dowels and a red stamp of a Japanese Iconic stamp to create a beautiful handscroll.
Learning objectives: Multimedia art, Japanese Art History, internet research.
ART WORDS:
Wash: watered down water colors to create a tint of a color.
India ink: type of ink used to create Japanese Handscrolls.
Here's the link to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's webpage that we used to research Japanese Handscrolls:
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/jilh/hd_jilh.htm
The significance of the cherry blossom tree in Japanese culture goes back hundreds of years. In their country, the cherry blossom represents the fragility and the beauty of life. It's a reminder that life is almost overwhelmingly beautiful but that it also short. When the cherry blossom trees bloom for a short time each year in brilliant force, they serve as a visual reminder of how precious life is. So, when Japanese people come together to view the cherry blossom trees and marvel at their beauty, they aren't just thinking about the flowers themselves, but also about the larger meaning and deep cultural tradition the cherry blossom tree.
The students were then given a 9" x 18" piece of white paper, they used a wash of watercolors or chalk pastels in 3 different sections to create a sunset. Once their paintings were dry they were given "india ink", which is what was used to make Japanese Handscrolls, (in our case just some black tempera paint and water mixed together) a straw and an eye dropper. They used the eye dropper to squeeze out little puddles of "ink" onto their paper and blew into the straws to create the branches of their own cherry blossom trees. They then will mix together some red and white paint and paint on their flowers to their branches. A finishing touch will be to add the dowels and a red stamp of a Japanese Iconic stamp to create a beautiful handscroll.
Learning objectives: Multimedia art, Japanese Art History, internet research.
ART WORDS:
Wash: watered down water colors to create a tint of a color.
India ink: type of ink used to create Japanese Handscrolls.
Here's the link to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's webpage that we used to research Japanese Handscrolls:
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/jilh/hd_jilh.htm
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