Second grade goes to Japan!

The second grade studies continents throughout the year and to supplement those lessons art classes focus different wordly cultures. For this particular lesson we studied the island of Japan for its fishing industry. The students made multimedia pieces using Japanese techniques like suminagashi and gyotaku.

Suminagashi

Suminagashi is a Japanese marbling technique using ink. Students filled the tip of a sumi brush with ink and touched it into a dish of water. They laid pieces of paper on the water's surface to absorb the designs the ink made.

Gyotaku

Gyotaku was a technique Japanese fishermen used to keep record of the fish they caught. They made prints of the fish's bodies and decorated their homes with the ones they were proud of. The second grade used red paint so their prints stood out against the blue background of their pieces that resembled water.

Student Artwork:

You may have noticed random initials written on the artwork. Teachers in Japan stamp students work when they approve their art so to mimic this part of Japanese culture the students made a name stamp with their initials and printed it on their classmate's art that they liked.