Lesson: Popular Culture and Japan’s Gross National Cool
Grade Level: SecondarySubject Area: Social Studies
Modern Japan's pop culture, from Hello Kitty to Wii, has been successfully exported worldwide. This lesson explores the varied roots of these cultural trends and their significance in a global context.
Resource: Anime - An Annotated Filmography for Use in the Classroom
In this filmography, Japanese historian and anime and manga expert Antonia Levi recommends anime movies to use in the grade K-12 classroom. For each movie, she gives a synopsis, suggests age appropriateness, and offers points of discussion.
Resource: Hiroshige Print of Tokaido Checkpoint
Hiroshige woodblock print of a checkpoint along the Tokaido, ca 1833-34.
Resource: Illustration of Tokyo Earthquake of 1650
Artist's rendering of an earthquake in Tokyo in 1650.
Resource: Clay Image: The First Branch (Deisho: Saisho no eda)
The artist Osamu Suzuki is an important figure in modern Japanese ceramics. His "clay images" are inspired by nature; each meant to capture an aspect of its essence.
Resource: Pineapple Box-S
The artist Kimiyo Mishima creates realistic clay sculptures of things that society typically discards; newspapers, magazines, boxes and advertisements. She renders each with painstaking care, crafting, glazing, firing and silk-screening each form to achieve a highly realistic effect.
Resource: Vessel With Inlaid Multicolor Glazes (Saiseki zogan utsuwa)
The artist Eiko Kishi created this work using a technique she invented called “colored inlay” (saiseki zōgan). She creates a clay form, cuts many tiny holes in its surface, then inlays bits of hardened clay, pigment, and glaze. The result is reminiscent of stone yet still retains the essential properties of ceramic objects.
Resource: Bodhidharma Crossing the Yangzi River on a Reed
This is a historical Buddhist figure named Bodhidharma, a Buddhist monk originally from India. After attaining Enlightenment, Bodhidharma traveled to China to spread his teachings. He is known as the founder of Zen Buddhism in China.
Resource: Hotei
Hotei was one of many Zen Buddhist “scattered saints,” eccentrics who likely originated as regional deities and were appropriated by Zen.
Resource: Large Faceted Jar (Hakuji mentori otsubo)
Kō Takenaka is a specialist in using Kyoto white porcelain, a material known for its delicacy in texture and structure. Like the Korean ceramics that he is inspired by, Takenaka removes all evidence of the artist’s hand when finishing his works.
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