Here is a fun slide show – Enjoy!

Jump to Japan: Discovering culture through popular art at Kids ‘N’ Stuff

ART + Museum+ history = kids fun!

Artful Traditions Japanese watercolors and Woodblock Prints

Artful Traditions focuses on the people, places and things depicted in nine displayed ukiyo-e (woodblock prints). Seven of the prints are from Edo Tokyo Museum’s collection, Picture Book of Child Play by Syuntei Miyagawa. Two prints are by masters of woodblock prints, Katsushika Hokusai and Ando Hiroshige. Visitors are introduced to Japanese traditions—including clothing, festivals, children’s games and stories—through activities shown in the woodblock prints. Each woodblock print is juxtaposed with a photograph of contemporary Japan, in which the same or a related scene is portrayed.

Visitors enter a Japanese home of the Edo period (1603-1867) modeled after details shown in the woodblock prints: walls of openwork wooden grating, wood lattice with paper panes and a roof of bamboo with wood shakes. Landscape elements and a bamboo overlay on two of the exterior walls represent the gardens outside many Japanese homes of this era.

Visitors can also play an ancient Japanese card game, Karuta, which is still played today. A Japanese woodblock print shows a group of girls playing Karuta, in which contestants race to make matches between cards with one-half of a Japanese poem or proverb (in script or pictures) and cards bearing the other half.

From Past to Present

Visitors can view an ancient picture scroll, a reproduction from Chôjûgiga (The Frolicking Animal Scrolls) by the 12th century artist-priest Toba. A panel holds “seek-and-find” questions for visitors that call attention to details in the scroll. Visitors see similarities between ancient scrolls, woodblock prints and the contemporary art forms of manga and anime.

Kids ‘N’ Stuff Children’s Museum is a non-profit organization that provides fun, interactive learning experiences for children ages 0 through 10 years. Visitors discover their world through hands-on exhibits. Kids ‘N’ Stuff is committed to enhancing the educational opportunities for children and their families by providing a creative and enriching experience through interactive exhibits and programs in the arts, humanities, sciences, and technology. Kids ‘N’ Stuff Children’s Museum has been providing children and adults with a fun, educational environment for 7 years.

Jump to Japan: Discovering Culture through Popular Art at Kids ‘N’ Stuff is funded in part by the Guido A. and Elizabeth H. Binda Foundation, Albion Area Philanthropic Women, Albion Community Foundation, Community Foundation Alliance of Calhoun County, and Haas Trucking of Albion.

For more information, visit www.kidsnstuff.org or call 517-629-8023.

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