Japanese Architecture for Elementary School Students

Background Information.

The lesson teaches the primary principles behind Japanese architecture by using films, photographs and hand-on craft as tools for learning. Seeing people inhabit and use buildings within the context of Japanese films provide an opportunity to identify, study and understand architectural elements which are unique to the Japanese culture. One film is suggested for viewing: Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away, where the indoor scenes are heavily based on traditional Japanese architecture. Additionally, students will construct models of sliding paper screens out of basswood and tracing paper. By experimenting with materials and light, they will learn about the importance of light and shadow and about the flexibility in space use that result from the sliding screens.

Learning Goals.

Standards.

Common Core Standards
College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening

• Standard 2.   Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.

College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Language

• Standard 1.  Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
  

1. McRel Standard 1. Understands and applies media, techniques, and processes related to the visual arts
2. McRel Standard 2. Knows how to use structures (e.g., sensory qualities, organizational principles, expressive features) and functions of art
3. McRel Standard 3. Knows a range of subject matter, symbols, and potential ideas in the visual arts
4. McRel Standard 4. Understands the visual arts in relation to history and cultures

Key Concept.

1. Use of negative and positive space in Japanese architecture .
2. The importance of light and shadow.
3. Movable and portable architectural elements within Japanese buildings.

Essential Question.  

Primary Source.  

Thought Questions.  

Activities

Focus Activity Ideas.

Show examples of Japanese homes and identify portable and movable elements that make living in small spaces possible and comfortable.

• Hallway
• Tatami and Shoji
• Room

Discuss the following questions:

1. What differences do you notice between these interior photos and the houses that you live in?
2. Describe the different doors and windows that you see in the images. How are they different from those at your homes?
3. Japanese homes are often smaller than American homes. How do the sliding screens help live in smaller spaces? Do they make the rooms feel bigger?
4. How would they change the way you use the rooms if you had sliding screens instead of door and fixed walls?

Main Lesson Activity Ideas. Show photos of transition spaces within Japanese homes where changing of shoes or slippers take place.

• Entryway
• Entryway to Tatami Room
• Outdoor noodle shop

1. How does the ritual of taking one’s shoes off change the experience inside of a building?  What would you like and dislike about this way of living?
2. What do you notice are different about the building when the shoes are taken off?

Make rice paper screens with balsa and tracing paper by following these instructions. Here is the template.  Discuss the following questions:

1. How are these screens different from the walls and doors in your house?
2. How would living in a house with thin, movable partitions be different than the way you live now?
3. As you move the lamp closer and farther away from the screens, what happens? Try placing an action figure or a cut-out of a human figure in front of the screen, and move the lamp. What happens to the shadows as the light source moves? How about if the figure moves?

Summative Activity Ideas.

View the movie Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazaki. The fantasy scenes are based on traditional architecture, and the students will find some similarities between the settings in the film and the photos from Activities 1 and 2 above as well as the model they built in Activity 3.

At the end of Chapter 3 and the beginning of Chapter 4, Chihiro takes her shoes off before entering the house. You will see that she also sleeps on the tatami mat (woven grass mat) floor. What are advantages and disadvantages can you think of in taking your shoes off before entering the house?

In Chapters 5 and 6, look carefully at the bathhouse where Chihiro is hired to work. What elements from the previous activities do you see? Can you see that the materials of sliding screens are different depending on which room she is in?

Having constructed the paper screen models, do you have a better understanding of what it might be like to walk through these rooms in the film? How would you describe the differences between an animation that is based on traditional Japanese building versus those in a contemporary setting?

Resources.

 Spirited Away. Dir. Hayao Miyazaki. Studio Gibli. 2001. DVD.

Resources for Educators and Older Students:

GENERAL SURVEY AND THEORY BOOKS ON Japanese Architecture

Isozaki, Arata. Japan-ness in Architecture. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2006.

Plummer, Henry. Light in Japanese Architecture. Tokyo: a + u, 1995.

Tanizaki, Junichiro. In Praise of Shadows. Stony Creek: Leete's Island Books, 1977.

Yagi, Koji. A Japanese Touch for Your Home. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1982.

Young, David & Michiko. The Art of Japanese Architecture. Tokyo: Tuttle, 2007.

monographs & WEBSITES on contemporary Japanese architects

Botond, Bognar. Kengo Kuma: Selected Works. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2007.

Dal Co, Francesco. Tadao Ando: Complete Works. London: Phaidon, 1997.

Perez Rubio, Augustin. SANAA Houses: Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa. Barcelona: Actar, 2007.

Kengo Kuma: http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/kuma.html

Jun Aoki: http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/jun_aoki.html

FILMS

Equinox Flower (Higanbana). Dir. Yasujiro Ozu. Shochiku, 1958. DVD.

Departures (Okuribito). Dir. Yojiro Takita. Shochiku, 2008. DVD.

Dreams. Dir. Akira Kurosawa. Warner Brothers, 1990. DVD.