Resources

Shodo Harada Roshi, the abbot of Sogenji, a 17th century monastery in Okayama in Japan and international teacher of Rinzai Zen Buddhism, demonstrates his large scale calligraphy works.

Over the centuries, two main branches of Buddhism emerged: a transmission that traveled to Southeast Asia, and a transmission that evolved in East Asia. A further offshoot of the northern transmission also developed. All three branches began in India, and developed further as they moved across Asia.

Leta Bushyhead, Asian Art Museum Storyteller, tells a Chinese folktale inspired by objects in the museum’s collection.

In 1420, in an effort to consolidate his control over the throne, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty moved China’s capital to a site in the North, now known as Bejing. There, he built a vast complex of palaces and administrative buildings now covering 178 acres. Because access was restricted to the imperial family and to those who had business with them, it came to be known as the Forbidden City. Learn more in this short documentary.

Students compare and contrast the different ways in which people commemorate the passing of a year by interviewing their families, creating a tablescape, and sharing their traditions with their classmates.

Invasions in the north by the Jin Tartars in the 12th century forced the Song dynasty to retreat to the south where a new court was established at Hangzhou in 1127. Under the Emperor Hui Zong the Imperial Painting Academy already was moving in the direction of closer views of nature, both in landscapes and in images of birds, flowers, and insects. The intent was to capture the vital life spirit of these subjects as well as an understanding of their true form, texture, and movement in space.

When one thinks of Chinese painting one might think of hanging scrolls and handscrolls. Wall paintings were an early form of painting, preserved today in cave temples, temple buildings, and tombs. Written records describe paintings on palace walls and in humbler dwellings. One of the first advocates of landscape painting, Zong Bing, wrote in the 5th century about the joys of having landscape paintings on the walls of his house so he could imagine himself in the untrammeled world of mountains and streams, mists, trees, and rocks. Hanging scrolls of silk provided wall decoration that could be changed or removed. Handscrolls, primarily used for written documents, became vehicles for the illustrations of paragons of virtue or of supernatural spirits as well as panoramic landscapes, and bird and flower paintings.

Learn about the objects found in the alcove (Japanese: tokonoma, pronounced “toe-ko-no-ma”) of a traditional Japanese teahouse and the traditions of the Japanese tea ceremony.