Samurai: Japanese Armor at LACMA

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

The fee is $25 to see the Samurai exhibit at LACMA. This may be too costly to take a class, but it is well worth it for any educator that teaches Japan time period 12th through 19th century to attend. The exhibit is amazing. There are several Samurai armor displayed along with helmets, masks, and a few weapons. You can take unlimited non-flash pictures to share with your students. However, the artwork and detail of the armor cannot justly be depicted in photos by a novice photographer like myself. It is difficult to take pictures without strangers reflecting off the glass or in the background, so you may consider going as soon as it opens so there might be less people. You have to see these items in person to appreciate the craftsmanship. Save $12 parking by going on Sundays when you don't have to pay the meters on Wilshire Blvd. The Samurai Armor is on display until February 1. Japanese swords along with other Japanese artifacts are on permanent display in the Pavilion for Japanese Art.

[Anonymous]

http://www.lacma.org/programs/education/evenings-educators
The Samurai exhibit at LACMA is part of an ongoing; Visual Arts program-Evening for Educators open to all educators, at the end of each lecture, there is dinner and a private tour to the currents exhibit. The program primarily focuses on the cultural artifacts and historical context each artifact was created/produced/manufactured. The lectures are informative and grounded on scholarly research, interspersed with other sources, such as personal narratives, diaries, letters, primary and secondary sources. The Samurai exhibit was the opening event of a 4 lecture series presented by scholars and curators for the exhibit. Following the lecture teachers were divided into the elementary grades-middle grades and high school. The museum had several work-shops for hands on Samurai-helmet making and extensive discussion on metallurgy and its chemical processes. Beside the visual arts it was evident that the exhibit/topic could be easily adapted to meet the educational objectives of any grade level, using the GRAPES acronym: GEOGRAPHY/RELIGION/ARTS-ACHIEVEMENTS/POLITICTS/ECONOMICS/SOCIAL STRUCTURES, (organization of individuals within a society) given current trends to incorporate content across disciplines; language arts, Social Science-7th grade-Samurai-the sciences-earth/life/physical/math. The Samurai exhibit, encapsulate a Japanese era of great warfare development-armor and swords as well as the exquisite artistic experimentation –from the intricate and ornate miniature designs on the sword’s handle and exterior cover-sheath- to the blade’s tensile strength. Including the metal and its processes that produce the present artifacts curated in the exhibit, attest to the cutting edge vision, creativity and ingenuity of the Japanese artisans during the Samurai era. A breath taking exhibit worthwhile seeing!

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