Minooka TAP

The author of The Old Man Mad About Drawing is a French illustrator named Francois Place.  I think it’s kind of fitting that a book about one of the most famous book illustrators in the world, Hokusai, is written by another illustrator.

If you pay close attention to the illustrations, you can see that in a lot of ways Place is trying to copy Hokusai’s artistic style.  We’re going to spend a lot of time in the next few weeks talking about Japanese art, so now I’d like you to take a little bit of time to try and draw in the Japanese style.

Of course, some of you are probably fantastic artists, and some of you are probably mediocre, and (let’s be honest) there’s probably a few of you who are just plain terrible at drawing.  We don’t care.  We didn’t say create a work of art that’s worthy of a spot in a museum – said we’d like you to TRY to draw in the Japanese style.  You’re going to become the Young Man (or Woman) Mad About Drawing!!! Read more…

This week we want you to read the next four chapters of The Old Man Mad About Drawing by Francois Place.  In chapters 5-8, the characters in the story experience all sorts of aspects of Japanese culture.  The characters see a Japanese play presented in the Kabuki style, they learn about wood block prints, they see Japanese calligraphy, and they attend a sumo wrestling match.

These are all important pieces of Japanese culture that we’ll be discussing throughout the year.  For now though, we want you to pick one of those four topics and do a little research about it.    Using what ever resources you want to, find out as much information as you can about that topic.

Read more…

We’re really excited to be starting a new book this week.  For the next month or so, we’ll be reading The Old Man Mad About Drawing by Francois Place.  What we really love about this book is that it’s a book about a man who draws, written by a man who draws.  Until this book came out, Francois Place was actually better known as an illustrator.

The book takes place in the city of Edo, which was what Tokyo was called way back in the day.  So, to help you understand the book a little more, we’re asking you to do a little research about Edo.  For this week, read the first four chapters of Old Man and pay careful attention to the people and places you see and read about in the city.  Then, using what ever resources you want to, find out more about Edo.   Read more…

Poetry about kitchen appliances frolicking in a field rocks!

This week we’ll go ahead and finish The Narrow Road to the Deep North .    Just like last week, we’re going to take a closer look at the poetry in Basho’s work.  Only this time instead of focusing on Basho’s haiku, we’re going to write one of our own.

You can use the dozens of Basho poems in the text to help you (there’s about a hundred of them at the end of the document we sent you), but remember – most haiku follow a few simple rules:

1. They’re usually about nature.
2. They have three lines.
3. The lines are 5, 7, and 5 syllables long. Read more…

We’re continuing on with one of the best loved pieces of Japanese literature – The Narrow Road to the Deep North  this week.  This time, though, we’re going to take a closer look at the poetry that Basho and his protege Sora wrote on their journey. (If you don’t have a copy of the book yet, click on the title and it will give you a free online copy).

This week we want you to read to page 35 (PDF) or page 33 (page numbers in the text).  This is confusing, because the page numbers in the text don’t match the page numbers of the PDF file we’re sending you.  Either way, stop when you see this poem:

And Sora wrote:

Yudono Mountain –
as I walk through pilgrims’ coins
tears come to my eyes Read more…

This week we want you to begin reading one of the most important and beloved pieces of literature in Japan’s history – The Narrow Road to the Deep North,  a journal that details the travels of Japan’s most famous poet – Matsuo Basho. (click on that link to get your free ebook copy).

Japanese literature is very different from Western stories.  You’ll find very quickly that Basho’s book is not filled with conflicts and problems like our stories are, instead its almost a poetic look at nature, religion, and the Japanese people.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North is a very short text – less than 50 pages – but we want you to read it very carefully, slowly trying to picture the places and people that Basho describes from each day of his journey.  We really encourage you to read and re-read each passage to try to really understand and imagine what Basho saw and experienced as he wrote.  Why?  Well  that’s pretty simple – some of the places that Basho traveled to are places that you’ll be standing in less than nine months.  Read more…