pre-2011 museum resources

[Anonymous]

Visits to the Buddhist temple, traditional music, koto performances, karate demonstrations, mochi pounding. . . these are just some of the components of the New Year's celebration in Little Tokyo. For the second time, my family and I experienced this celebration. This year, the festivities were not attended as well due to inclimate weather, however, there was still a strong Japanese-American flair.

New Year's in Little Tokyo is a celebration of Japanese culture. There are exhibitions of varying Japanese customs and traditions. Multiple styles of marial arts are present, as are musical and cultural performances. There are ikebana (flower arranging), kite making, and origami, among others. Of course, my favorite part is mochi making. This is an important New Year's tradition amongst Japanese. Mochi is pounded sweet rice. Although in modern times, one can make instant mochi or machine-made mochi, there is nothing like traditionally pounded mochi for New Years. The rice mixture is pounded with a huge mallet, as onlookers give cries of encouragement - "yoisho." The pounding itself is exhausting as the mallet is quite heavy. My family and I were fortunate to be able to give it a try. My husband did some with my daughter, and I helped my 2 year old son. What fun!

Having had the opportunity to have New Year's in Japan, it is fun to participate in some of these traditions here in the states. Interesting, though, is how the Little Tokyo celebration lumps all of these Japanese customs and traditions into one day. In Japan, one would only participate in temple visits, special food, family visits, and mochi making. The rest would be experienced in different times.

If anyone would like a fun thing to do on New Year's Day next year, I would suggest Little Tokyo

[Anonymous]

I recently read a lesson plan on museums in the classroom. What a way to introduce museums and display artifacts (even if they are pictures) to tell about the Chinese/Japanese culture. Parents could bring in things from home or ... well, the possibilities are endless. Follow up with going to the Japanese Museum in LA. (I took my 4th graders there last year - they loved it!)

[Anonymous]

Over the break, I visited LACMA's East Asian Collection-- I had remembered that a family friend had donated a burial stone to the Korean exhibit, and I wanted to see it again. Hidden away in the lower level of the building, it's not the most spectacular piece in the place-- two heavy black marble tablets with aged gray characters grided across the face-- but it has an interesting story; one I was lucky to find out.
The characters on the tablet certainly don't look Korean. They're not. Written in Chinese (as most literary and government documents were in the 1700s-- see the wikipedia article on Hangul, which, though developed in the 1400s, was not widely used until the 1900s: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangul), the stone records the history of the Suh family. It notes the various government offices held in the family, as well as the personalities and a brief CV of each notable. I asked my friend if this was done with each family member, as it would be a pretty redundant affair-- and she responded that since it was such an expensive custom, it was probably done only with the most important members of the family, like this former Prime Minister.

She came into possession of the stone about 5 years ago, when the family's burial ground in Korea was sold, and the cemetery had to be moved in preparation.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone been to the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo? An old roommate of mine has a friend who's a docent there. I'm sorry I missed the "Big Drum Taiko in the U. S." exhibit--it finished up on Jan. 8th. They do have an ongoing exhibit: "Common Ground, The Heart of Community". The exhibit chronicles 130 years of Japanese history in the U.S. I'm planning on going--my friend knew I was in this program and got me a couple of tickets If anyone has been and knows of something I should especially check out--let me know...[Edit by="scampbell on Jan 28, 12:58:07 AM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

When I was just looking up info. on the museum, I found an article on it from The Journal of Historical Review. The title: California Subsidizes Japanese American Museum. It seems, when George Deukemajian was in office, he first turned down, then passed a bill for a grant of $175,000. The museum was to be built on the grounds of a Historic Buddhist temple in little Tokyo. The city would get the money if they matched 1 mill.$. It would show the experience of immigrants and would serve as a conscienceof America-- reminding of the civil injustices of WW11.[Edit by="scampbell on Jan 28, 1:58:56 AM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

While in the area (I don't think San marino is that far), may I suggest a visit to the Huntington Library. There was a great article on it recently in the LA Times:January 21st. Crates of limestone that was mined from Lake Tai, west of Shanghai has made its way to the Huntington Library. Very soon, the Library will open the largest Chinese garden outside of China. It is an $80-million project. San Marino now has an Asian majority. The Library realized that to secure its future it needed help from ethnic Chinese to connect with the new residents and donors.

[Anonymous]

I forgot to add, the first phase of the Chinese Garden will not open until 2008. The president of the Los Angeles branch of the China ocean Shipping Co. donated 100 cargo containers so the garden would not have to bust the budget of the Library to bring over materials from China. Chinese artisians were finally able to gain visas to work on the landscape architecture. If you go, get reservations for tea in the "Rose Garden." It is a delightful place to have lunch!
I can't wait until this opens!

[Anonymous]

On Monday of this week I visited the Pavilion for Japanese Art at LACMA. What a pleasant surprise it was to explore a museum I never knew existed. I appreciated it all the more because of my current studies about the history and culture of Japan. It would be a great place to direct students to visit after studying Japan. I plan to encourage my seventh graders to visit after our Japan unit. The collections are rotated so I wanted to come up with an open ended kind of activity. I decided if the kids chose to attend for extra credit I would have them fill out sentence starters as they visited. Some examples would be: I wonder why....I was amazed....I would like to know more about.....I was impressed.....I learned..... They would benefit from a visit, especially as the culmination to a unit.
The museum itself just exudes peace and serenity. I felt as if I were inside a temple. The high, decorative ceiling is seemingly held up by Japanese screens, which are really tall panels made to look like screens. As you wander through the exhibit the floors meander into one another along ramps and at the bottom there is a rock like stream that reminded me of our study of Japanese gardens. I started by viewing the hanging scrolls which depict different scenes of Japanese cultural and religious life. A love of the natural and serene are noticeable themes.
Next, I explored a room of Japanese landscape paintings. These works show the evolutionary phases in Japanese painting. The earliest are of sacred places, habitats of Kami, Buddhist miracles, and pilgrimage routes. They are places described in poetry for display of cherry or plum blossoms, maple leaves or scenes in literature. In the 14th to 20th centuries painting changed as travel became more common. The influence of China lessened and western style painting was eventually imitated. As I walked through the history of landscape painting as a novice to the subject, I could pick out different techniques from much more abstract and simple to the use of perspective and the use of more realism. All of this keeping a distinctive Japanese style. One can really get a flavor of the culture and the landscape by enjoying these paintings. Junior high students would enjoy viewing the paintings as well.
In another room there was a statue of Amide Buddha and pottery from the Yayou and Joman periods. I found out what a Living Natural Treasure is in Japan. When an artist is proficient in a traditional artistic skill he or she is protected and encouraged. A kimono with dye applied on silk was displayed and an explanation of the process the artist used. I found the box of playing cards from the Edo Period especially interesting as there were 100 cards to be read each with a well known 31 syllable poem. One card would show the full poem and the matching card would have the last 14 syllables of the same poem.
I learned that Shinto art is much more limited in quantity than Buddhist art. Shinto sculpture is kept in closed shrines while Buddhist sculpture is not. There is a close association between Shinto art, dieties and the court.
Students would be especially fascinated with the samurai suit or armor displayed. The one in the museum is made of laquer and silk and was not worn in battle but for travel, parades and military games during times of peace. I was fortunate to hear a 10 minute speech by a docent explaining the life of a samurai and a little on Japanese society and the place the samurai had in society. She mentioned that if an item in Japan is useful it had to be beautiful as well!
As I left the museum I found the Netsuki Gallery which is full of miniature sculptures unique to Japan. They were worn on kimonos with no pockets to help secure boxes which held money, tobacco, and writing implements. I would have liked to spend more time looking at the netsukis. I will have to save that for my next visit! I would highly recommend a trip to the gallery. It made me appreciate the knowledge I am gaining from participating in the UCLA/Palos Verdes Forum. I want to visit more museums to enrich myself and hopefully my enthusiasm will spread to my students!

[Anonymous]

Crieder -- I just wanted to tell you that I really liked your idea of using "sentence starters". I like that it can be used for a number of assignments and that it solved the problem you face when you don't know what exactly what your students will encounter on their visit. Great idea, I want to use it.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

After months of waiting, my request was accepted to take my students to LACMA. How in time! We are halfway through China(the chapter). We were so excited. The kids were all pumped up. I was especially excited because this would be my first visit after becoming so knowledgable about China(Thanks to Clay). But our being pumped did not last very long, we were all punctured by hearing that China section is under construction and will remain so for 2 to 3 years to come.
Well we managed to visit India, Iran, Rome, Mesopotamia and Egypt. You can imagine what the students were mostly thrilled about. Yah you're right the mummies.

I made it up to kids. I took them next door, to Page museum(Labrea Tar Pits).

I thought I'd let you know, just in case you are going. Now you know. [Edit by="rrustamzadeh on Feb 6, 10:31:07 AM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

I was reminded of how resourceful Pasadena is for museums, hello growing up there I should have remembered. Anyway I was disappointed to learn that the Chinese garden at Huntington Library/Garden is under construction.

The owner of the grounds wrote in his will that he didn't want his land sold to Blacks, Jews, or Chinese. Ha! If he only knew that a Chinese man is in charge of Huntington!

Has anyone visited the Asia Pacific Museum recently? I'm looking for additional ideas to bring into the classroom.

jem

[Anonymous]

I visited the Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles two weeks ago. Compared to the Getty, LACMA, or Norton Simon you won't get as many visuals. However, there is some good reading material there on the history of Chinese Americans, hence the name. I think it would be a good visit for students grades 6 and up. However, I don't think it should be a day trip because the facilities are quite small.

Check out their website with this link

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[Anonymous]

The Huntington Library and Museum in San Marino has an excellent Japanese Garden. I visited it over the weekend and Highly Recommend it for the garden as well as the pleasant atmosphere. They have a lot to offer for American and European art. Kids are welcome.

[Anonymous]

If you are interested in the history of Korean American, there is a place to go in Los Angeles. It will show you the history of Korean community in Los Angeles through images from its beginnings in 1904. The exhibit's discussions of achievement in the face of class and racial restrictions offer an outstanding lesson for all who encounter it. It also offers first hand experiences through the medium of art as well as hands-on workshops that help student interact with the exhibition through art-making and writing. The gallery hours are 11am-6pm on Wednesday - Friday and on Saturday from 11am-3pm. If you make an appointment, they will accommodate group tours outside of these hours. If you would like to arrange a visit or tour, call at (213) 388-4229, or via email at [email protected]. The address is
3727 West Sixth Street (cross street Harvard)
Fourth Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90020

[Anonymous]

There is a wonderful opportunityat the Armand Hammer Museum. It is an exhibit entitled "A Letter From Japan: The Photographs of John Swope." The exhibition highlights photographs documenting the aftermath of World War II and features a copy of the 144 page letter Swope wrote to his wife, actress Dorothy McGuire, during his stay in the country. The museum is located at 10899 Wilshire Blvd., in Westwood. The exhibit ends June 4th.

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