A few days ago, I received a holiday card from an AsiaAlive alumnus, Japanese bamboo artist Tanaka Kyokusho. He also sent me a photo of his latest work, a fifty-foot-long dragon made entirely from bamboo.

Tanaka's bamboo dragon display in Tokyo.

Another Japanese artist, Paris-based artist Natsusaka Shinichiro, recently sent us the new year’s netsuke he created specially for the museum. This is his third year designing netsukes for our education programs; he previously created netsukes for the year of the tiger and the year of the rabbit.

Natsusaka's dragon netsuke is about an inch tall.

Unlike Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese communities, Japanese people celebrate the new year on January 1. This change from the lunar calendar was made during the Meiji Restoration Period, in 1873. Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese new year starts on January 23, 2012 (it changes every year according to the lunar calendar), so you will have three extra weeks to make new year’s resolutions.

Next Saturday, December 31, museum visitors can ring the new year in with our annual Japanese bell ringing ceremony, make their own netsukes at our family art activity, and welcome the Year of the Dragon in style.

By Saturday, August 28th, the city’s sweltering summer heat will yield to a more accustomed winter chill, so we recommend warming up with the Asian Art Museum’s Celebration of India.

Get moving with the Chitresh Das Dance Company, flex your mind and body with yoga gallery tours, sample Indian desserts and spices, and create your own works of art.

And since no fewer than five people have asked about it today, yes, Sanjay Patel will be presenting his new book, Ramayana: Divine Loophole.  Check out his Gheehappy.com, or learn about his influences (he has excellent taste) and read an interview on Pixar’s site.

A huge new shipment of South Asian books just arrived in the Museum Store, so if the docents pique your curiosity, you can take some of the museum home with you.  Namaste!

In hindsight, I should have spent more time focusing on the artistry and craftsmanship involved in making samurai masks, armor, helmets, swords and sword guards in my blog posts. But hindsight is a funny thing, and when exploring this with the person responsible for the parody website last weekend, I was told it wouldn’t have swayed his opinion that the activities promote militarism and glorify war.  I respect his position and hope the final two art activities provide a counter to the previous projects.

The next project lends a different perspective and highlights the more sophisticated nature of the samurai class.  This haiku project was beautifully designed by Corinne Takara, local artist, arts educator and creator of the previously posted samurai activities. In addition to more refined pursuits like go, Noh theater, painting and tea, poetry was a common samurai endeavor. Haiku is a short poem (often a meditation on nature) consisting of three lines—5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syallables. Next time you’re outside, stop in the moment and write a hiaku about the smells, sounds and colors washing over you. Then use these instructions to write and illistrate your poem.

For the record, this is not the first time I haven’t been able to penetrate the large mass of enthralled on-lookers gawking at the swords and sword guards. They are impressive works of art, and people seem genuinely curious about, and humbled by, them. I heard one gentleman say repeatedly, “That blade is so sharp! That blade is so sharp!”

Luckily, you can make your own samurai sword and sword guard at home with a few simple materials. Click here to learn how.

Would you like to make your own samurai helmet? Click here and have fun!

What I love about Japanese design—whether it’s an orange sherbet colored mini fridge or a wrinkled and mustachioed samurai mask—is the craftsmanship and attention to detail. I’d trade my sorry ol’ 1970′s Frigidaire for a tabletop model if I wasn’t so fond of ice cream, and in fact, I’m guessing it was the sweat drainpipes built into their masks that kept samurai loyal, not their code of ethics.

I first learned about samurai masks a few years ago when the artist, Corinne Takara, created a mask activity for the Art You Can Wear Family Festival. Using one of the half masks (mempo) from the museum’s collection as inspiration, Corinne designed an awesome activity that’s simple, fun to make and fierce. The activity was a huge hit with our visitors, so I was excited when Corinne agreed to design a series of samurai-related art projects for people to make at home. The mask, which you can download here, is the first of six.

The projects designed for kids but are cool enough for anyone to make. Each activity will be introduced and posted to the blog throughout the run of the exhibition—look for the next project the first week of July. I wonder what’s next?

The two to three weeks before an exhibition opens is always exciting and intense. In my corner of the museum, my colleagues and I are busy preparing for opening weekend programs and the unveiling of the Daimyo for a Day Art and Activity Room.

During the summer we transform the Resource Room, used during the school year for school tours, into a drop-in activity gallery linked to the special exhibition. The idea is to give people an immersive, hands-on experience that is fun and educational. You may recall last summer’s “Forbidden Discovery Room” and the summer before’s “Manga Lounge”

For the Lords of the Samurai exhibition we created a space meant to evoke a daimyo’s study room, with a tatami mat seating area with alcove (Japanese: tokonoma) and built-in shelves similar to what is found in “shoin” style architecture of aristocratic homes.

Almost everything in this space is meant to be touched by visitors, and therefore has to be built sturdily to withstand some abuse–we particularly want kids to feel welcome to play here, since our no-touch gallery spaces can be a bit limiting for spirited youngsters (and adults) who prefer to learn kinetically.

Working on a tight budget, it was challenging to create a durable space with some semblance of authenticity (we leave it to our visitors to judge if we were successful or not). We were lucky to find some very generous collaborators who graciously worked within our budget.

Here’s what was involved:

-education team brainstormed the elements of the room and drafted an outline of the various activities and sketched designs

-designs shown to the exhibition designer Stephen Penkowsky for feedback and consultation

-signage and wall graphic needs identified and conveyed to graphics firm, Gordon Chun Designs. Incredibly patient designer Amy Lam sent us multiple revisions of proofs of room elevations and graphics, and all have gone to production after editorial review by several readers including the curators and editors

-Secured Japanese garden image and permission from landscape designer Ron Herman

-ordered tatami mats from Mr. Uota who custom-made the special mat used in the tokonoma and coordinated our order from Japan for four light-weight tatami mats (traditional mats weigh about 80 pounds each, but now mats can be made with a lightweight core so they can be easily carried by one person–very useful for museum programming which can be ephemeral). Mr. Uota also contributed a length of Japanese cedar for the carpenter to use on the tokonoma frame

-called various contacts for references of carpenters who could build a tokonoma/built-in shelves. Several were recommended and we ended working two different carpenters to build out different aspects of the room: Kerry Marshall (seen above left) and Christopher Weiss (below)

-met with the head of preparations, Brent Powell, and determined that we would invest in a modular wall system for the partition needed to separate the video viewing area from the daimyo’s study area. The walls arrived June 1. Our preparators worked with Erik, manager of facilities and operations to install them Friday. We will use these walls for years, possibly decades, to come.

-platform construction was completed by yet another contractor, Ergowitz, who installed and painted the platform and new walls Sunday

-film series researched and programmed by Ken Ikemoto, School Programs Associate (aka Otomeki5)–this involves lots of leg work securing film rights and editing blurbs (see the film listing here)

-three education staff went to Japantown to shop for costumes for people to try on. Purchased a man’s kimono and hakama, a woman’s kimono, and two children’s outfits. (We also stocked up on Japanese sweets at Nippon-Ya.)

-education staff drafted poetry activity instructions and sent them to poet Gary Gach for review and suggestions.

-education staff contacted members of SF Go Club to solicit advise and volunteers to teach people how to play Go over the summer–details are still being worked out

-Tuesday, the day before the press preview, all the major elements were installed and we were ready for the press preview this morning

-Special samurai storytelling program devised with the volunteer storytellers to occur in the room on Thursday mornings

-still to do: finalize poetry activity instructions and send to our in-house graphics designer, Jason Jose for layout and production; produce signage for film series, how to wear the costumes, and acknowledgments; decorate the tokonoma and built-in shelves with convincing but not valuable display items; place books in reading corner; set up poetry activity materials; etc.

Let us know what you think about the room, so that our future efforts can benefit from experience.