Organized around universal aspects of childhood—family, school, play, and holiday celebrations—Japan & Nature: Spirits of the Seasons encourages investigations of how people living in Japan today understand nature through special seasonal and everyday environments and activities from a child’s perspective. The exhibit features four distinct, interactive environments each reflecting a specific season and regional setting in Japan. Two interactive kiosks greet visitors to introduce Japan’s place in the world and unique geography and landscape.

Spring in Fukuoka

Children celebrate spring in Fukuoka, the largest city on the island of Kyushu. Here a colorful cherry blossom bloom welcomes visitors. At a picnic setting under the trees, children can choose from an assortment of contemporary picnic implements and role-play spring hanami (flower viewing). A display case set inside a picnic cooler holds a selection of traditional picnic and cherry blossom artifacts; a portable DVD player presents a video of people picnicking, admiring, and enjoying the cherry blossoms at a local Fukuoka park; and photos and drawings of Japanese children picnicking and playing under the Fukuoka cherry blossoms.

Next to the picnic area, a five-foot long carp windsock, and objects and photos sent from children in Japan, are on display in the façade of a Fukuoka home. A video introduces visitors to Children’s Day, when Japanese families celebrate the healthy growth and happiness of children. Visitors are encouraged to participate in a Children’s Day celebration by hanging carp windsocks to represent their own family and watching them blow in the springtime “wind” produced by a hidden fan. Inside the house, children try-on springtime kimono and geta, and view objects and photos from children featuring Hina Matsuri, a doll festival to wish for the happiness and healthy growth of girls.

A Fukuoka classroom welcomes children to the start of a new school year as they explore the special ways nature is incorporated into the curriculum. Like Japanese schoolchildren, visitors care for the school animals at the exhibit puppet theater, watch the care and planting of the class’ rice paddy, practice writing calligraphy, and ward off late spring rain by making Teru Teru Bozu dolls and hanging them in the classroom window.

Summer in Lake Biwa

Summer vacation is time for family camping near Lake Biwa, Japan’s largest freshwater lake. At a lakeside campsite under evergreens, children don a summer hat and grab a bug cage before setting off to search for Japanese children’s favorite insects hidden throughout the area. Children can try fishing in the Lake, and setting up camp for their family. The tent area is equipped with camping necessities as well as travel and nature guides, and family camping photo albums from the Lake Biwa district. Visitors can remember their “trip” with a family photo in front of one of the Lake’s seven famous scenic views.

Fall in Kyoto

In the mountainside city of Kyoto, children experience fall at one of Japan’s most celebrated shrines while exploring Shinto teachings about nature. Passing under a bright vermilion torii gate at the entrance, visitors come upon the brilliant red Japanese maple trees of autumn in Japan. Here children participate in the ubiquitous Japanese tradition of writing their wishes on ema and placing them at the shrine. Sitting beside statues of the rice goddess Inari’s fox messengers, children read about the Shrine’s traditions in a fun comic book written for Japanese children, try-on fox masks, and play with fox puppets.

A visit to the Shrine includes selecting leaves and nuts to create their own magnetic fall collage, and scanning the horizon for the rabbit in the harvest moon. Children join in the celebration for the fall rice harvest by dressing in festival garments, building and carrying a portable shrine called a mikoshi, and playing festival drums. Children’s drawings, objects, photos, and video from Japan give visitors’ a personal account of these special fall activities.

Winter in Sapporo

Winter is dazzling yet harsh in Sapporo, a city located on Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido. Safe inside the warmth of a traditional living room, children help a family prepare for the chilly weeks ahead by decorating the home’s tokonoma for the season and ordering special shun (in season) winter foods by phone. New Year’s is the most popular holiday in Japan, and visitors decorate their own New Year’s card, set the table for the holiday meal, and play the New Year’s game, fukuwarai. Surfing the channels on the TV, children view winter scenes of Sapporo such as Japanese children playing outdoors, a family visit to the hot springs, a New Year’s celebration, and the famous Sapporo Ice festival.

 

Japan & Nature: Spirits of the Seasons is the sixth exhibition in the Museum’s Chase Gallery, our new home for visiting exhibitions, generously donated by Chase. The Chase Gallery hosts a changing schedule of new traveling exhibitions from across North America every three to four months.