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July 2, 2014 2 Comments

Art Spotlight: Hokusai’s Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji

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The Art Curator for Kids - Art Spotlight - Hokusai's Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji - Free PDF

Welcome to my Art Spotlight series. In this series, I delve a little deeper into individual works of art to help give you ideas for how to use them in your classroom. For each artwork, I include discussion questions, a short description of its significance and context, and learning activities.

The Art Curator for Kids - Japanese Art for Preschoolers - Mount Fuji ukiyo-e prints - Hokusai lesson for kids

Free PDF!

Hokusai’s 36 Views of Mount Fuji

A free PDF with all 36 of Hokusai’s artworks featuring Mount Fuji. Perfect to use in art class discussions, poetry writing, woodblock printing projects, or as a compare/contrast exercise!

Download

Free PDF!

Hokusai’s 36 Views of Mount Fuji

A free PDF with all 36 of Hokusai’s artworks featuring Mount Fuji. Perfect to use in art class discussions, poetry writing, woodblock printing projects, or as a compare/contrast exercise!

Katsushika Hokusai, The Great Wave off Kanagawa, c. 1829-32

Today, I have selected a series of artworks created by the great Japanese ukiyo-e artist, Katsushika Hokusai. You probably know of the famous Great Wave (above), but you may not know it is the 21st in a series of 36 other prints featuring Mount Fuji. Today, I will highlight a few of my favorites as well as help you come up with ways to include all of these in your homeschool and classroom lesson plans.

As always, use these tips for how to look at art with kids. Always let them look and think about it before you give them any information! Also, use my free art appreciation worksheets with these works to help your students form a deeper connection with the art.

Free Worksheets!

Art Appreciation Worksheets

In this free bundle of art worksheets, you receive six ready-to-use art worksheets with looking activities designed to work with almost any work of art.

Download

Free Worksheets!

Art Appreciation Worksheets

In this free bundle of art worksheets, you receive six ready-to-use art worksheets with looking activities designed to work with almost any work of art.

Recommended Age: Everyone!

First things first, let’s look at the art. This slideshow has 6 of the prints. Download the free PDF below to see the rest of the 36.

Hokusai, Asakusa Hongan-ji temple in the Eastern capital, 1830
Hokusai, Asakusa Hongan-ji temple in the Eastern capital, 1830
Hokusai, Ejiri in Suruga Province, 1830
Hokusai, Ejiri in Suruga Province, 1830
Hokusai, A sketch of the Mitsui shop in Suruga in Edo, 1830
Hokusai, A sketch of the Mitsui shop in Suruga in Edo, 1830
Hokusai, Kajikazawa in Kai Province, 1830
Hokusai, Kajikazawa in Kai Province, 1830
Hokusai, Mount Fuji reflects in Lake Kawaguchi, seen from the Misaka Pass in Kai Province, 1830
Hokusai, Mount Fuji reflects in Lake Kawaguchi, seen from the Misaka Pass in Kai Province, 1830
Hokusai, Rainstorm beneath the summit, 1830
Hokusai, Rainstorm beneath the summit, 1830

Hokusai Discussion Questions

  • What is going on in this artwork? What do you see that makes you say that?
  • What emotions do you feel when looking at this artwork? What emotions do you think the artist was feeling?
  • Describe the lines and colors in this artwork. How do the colors and lines contribute to the emotion?
  • Describe the ways Hokusai included Mount Fuji in the artworks.
  • What can you tell about the Japanese way of life in the Edo Period by looking at these artworks? What types of things are the people doing?
  • What do these artworks have in common? How could you tell that these were created by Hokusai during this time period?

Conventions of Ukiyo-e Prints

Hokusai was a prolific printmaker of the Edo period in Japan. He worked in the late 1700s and early 1800s and created hundreds of gorgeous prints. The ukiyo-e prints overall all seem to have a set of similar characteristics. The common characteristics of an art period or style are called the conventions.

The conventions of these ukiyo-e prints are:

  • peaceful or idyllic scenes that create harmony between humans and nature
  • asymmetrical composition – the left and rights sides are balanced but different
  • limited color palette of about 4 colors plus black – because of the printmaking process, each color must be printed separately in layers
  • unclear space or perspective – clouds or fog sometimes confuse the composition. You can’t tell the difference between sky and water, or lines end in the middle of nowhere.
  • diagonal or curves lines that guide your eye through the composition – these lines help tie it all together and add a sense of energy to the work
  • outlined shapes filled with solid, flat color – all objects in the artwork are outlined in black usually, and there is not a lot of texture in the areas of color, because of the way they are printed

Hokusai Learning Activities

1. Haiku Poetry. This painting is perfect for a poetry-writing exercise, especially haiku because of the Japan connection. You can download a free haiku writing worksheet by signing up for my e-mail list here. The worksheet walks the students through a warm-up of writing adjectives, verbs, phrases, and metaphors before they end up with their haiku. Have students pick their favorite Hokusai work to write about.

Free Worksheets!

Art Appreciation Worksheets

In this free bundle of art worksheets, you receive six ready-to-use art worksheets with looking activities designed to work with almost any work of art.

Download

Free Worksheets!

Art Appreciation Worksheets

In this free bundle of art worksheets, you receive six ready-to-use art worksheets with looking activities designed to work with almost any work of art.

2. Woodblock Printing. These paintings are woodblock print, so a natural fit would be a printing activity so your students can better understand how these were made. There are lots of way to do this at home, and I just did a post about this earlier in the week to prepare for this post. Click over to that post to learn about all the ways you can do woodblock prints at home with your kids.

3. Compare/Contrast. Pick 3-4 of Hokusai’s prints (or all of them if you are feeling ambitious) and have the students make a list of all of the things these prints have in common. Through this activity, your students will come up with the conventions of ukiyo-e printing as described above.

Hokusai and Printmaking Resources*

  • Great Wave of Kanagawa Katsushika Hokusai Poster Art Print — Super cheap print of the Great Wave ($4!).
  • The Old Man Mad About Drawing: A Tale of Hokusai — Children’s book (grades 5-8) about this artist. I haven’t read this, but it is very highly reviewed.
  • Printmaking Supplies

Please note, this post includes Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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Filed Under: Art and Artists, Downloads and Resources

 

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Art Around the World in 30 Days – Day #13 – AngolaRodin’s The Burghers of Calaisthe Art Curator for Kids - Wordless Wednesday - Gustave Klimt - the Three Ages of WomanWordless Wednesday: Gustav Klimt’s the Three Ages of Woman

Reader Interactions

2 Comments

  1. Anastasia

    July 4, 2014 at 6:01 pm

    Thank you for sharing your amazing resources! These are such a treasure!

    Reply to this comment to Anastasia" aria-label=' Reply to this comment to Anastasia'> Reply to this comment
    • Cindy @ Two Muses Homeschool

      July 4, 2014 at 7:24 pm

      Thank you very much! 🙂

      Reply to this comment to Cindy @ Two Muses Homeschool" aria-label=' Reply to this comment to Cindy @ Two Muses Homeschool'> Reply to this comment

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