Katsushika Hokusai was born in 1760 to an artisan family in Edo, Japan. He became an apprentice to a woodcarver at the age of 14. At 18, he was accepted into the school of Katsukawa Shunsho, where he began his mastery of ukiyo-e, a style of woodblock printing and painting. Below are several ideas for integrating Hokusai’s “Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji” with other subjects.

Looking at the Works

Students will enjoy viewing all of the works before focusing on specific ones. There are some slideshows available online. Below, you will find specific works for specific content integration. Before beginning any of the lessons, however, have the students use viewfinders to look slowly at the works.

A view finder can be cut from a thick piece of paper. Just cut a square out as if making a frame. Small pre-cut mats work as well. The students can place the viewfinder over different parts of the work and focus their attention there. These can be moved around the printed works easily. This will help them notice details. Have them record what they see on a sheet of paper using vivid language.

Natural Phenomena

These works have a plethora of natural phenomena incorporated beyond just the volcano that is Mt. Fuji. Have students sort images by constructive and destructive forces and explain their reasoning. Tama River in the Musashi Province depicts the force of a river, which carries sediment and causes erosion. Inume Pass in the Kai Province depicts a valley that could have been formed by movement of the earth’s surface or by erosion (see page 37). Tsukada Island in Musashi depicts an island that could have been formed from the volcano erupting. 

Red Fuji depicts mostly just the volcano. The students can discuss whether a volcano is mostly destructive or mostly constructive. These images provide almost endless possibilities for discussing natural phenomena. Incorporate other images besides the ones mentioned here as needed to meet the needs of your students.

Writing

Many of these images depict people. For instance, Sunset Across the Ryoguko Bridge from the Bank of the Sumida River at Onmagayashi shows people in a small boat. These images are great for narrative writing. Have the students write a narrative in first person and third person from the same image. This forces them to think critically as they use different voices but the same prompt.

Creating Art

Students can create their own images to accompany this unit. First, have them scratch a design into a piece of polystyrene. Then, have them print onto a piece of white paper using either warm or cool colors. Any type of paint will work for this, even tempera cakes. The most important aspect of this printing is to get a texture, not an image. The children can choose warm or cool, based on what message they want to convey.

For instance, in the image seen to the right, the student wanted to convey that a volcanic eruption would be dangerous and frightening. The student felt that warm colors best showed this idea and used warm colors to print the texture onto the white paper. 

Once the print dried, the student cut out the volcano shape. The background was created with oil pastels and watercolor. The student used plain white paper to create the illusion of a cloud of smoke. Instruct students to use these types of materials to create other images of natural phenomena. 

One way to incorporate math into this art making is to give specific measurements and dimensions for students to use as they create their image. For instance, you could tell them to create the most important object to be 9" x 5". This would require the use of problem-solving skills, make it even more challenging, and increase engagement.

How I Did This Project with My Students

First, it should be known that the timeframe for this activity is  3-45 minute sessions, and it is geared toward the 5th grade Level.

Materials used were: 

• 12x18 white tag board (2 sheets per student)

• white copy paper scraps

• warm color tempera cakes

• Paintbrushes

• Water

• oil pastels (black, gray, and shades of blue)

• Scissors

• Glue

• black liquid watercolor

• styrofoam plates

• wooden scratch tools

Here's what we did:

Students viewed Hokusai's Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. They located Japan on a map and discussed the importance of Mount Fuji in Japanese culture. This particular set of students really connected with this project because they were familiar with a local Japanese eatery called Mt. Fuji.

Next, students created the background. They used one piece of the 12x18 white tag board to create a background that used black, gray, and shades of blue oil pastels to color in a back and forth motion across the paper. 

They did not smear the pastels.Crayons would also work well for this project. I made sure the students understood that the back and forth motion had to be controlled by their wrists and hands. They were not free to "scribble scrabble". 

Then, they did a wash over the entire background with black liquid condensed watercolor watered down to a gray. (This created a resist with the oil pastels. "Resist" is a great vocabulary word to introduce with this project, and it lends easily to science mini-lesson about oil and water.)

On the second sheet of 12x18 white tagboard, students drew the basic shape of a volcano and cut it out.

They used the wooden scratch tools to carve random designs into the back of the styrofoam plate. This created a stamp which allowed for further discussion of Hokusai's woodblock printing method. Then, they used warm color tempera cakes to paint the back of the plate and stamp it onto the basic volcano shape. 

I asked the students to go off of the volcano sheet with their stamp. This means that  A LOT of paint got on the tables. I made sure they understood that it was okay to get the paint on the tables because tempera cakes wash up easily.

They used the copy paper scraps to cut out a cloud and the ash that is running down the side of the basic volcano shape. Finally, they glued everything to the background.

This project was done in conjunction with a 5th grade science unit on the forces of nature. It is a great arts integration project.