Counting in Japanese

How to Fold an Origami Crane

Origami

Origami cranes at the Children's Peace Monument in Hiroshima

Origami is the art of folding paper.  Although it began in China, where paper was invented, it was the Japanese who developed it into an art form.

The crane is a popular origami shape that has a special meaning. In Japan, cranes have long been symbols of honor, loyalty, and long life. They are known as the "bird of happiness."  An ancient Japanese legend promises that anyone who folds one thousand paper cranes will be granted a wish.

Origami cranes have also become symbols of the desire for world peace, through the true story of Sadako Sasaki. Sadako was a Japanese girl who lived in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped on it in World War II. Years after the bombing, she became sick with leukemia from the bomb's radiation.  You can read about her story in the book Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, by Eleanor Coerr.

Today, people from all over the world send about 10 million origami cranes to Hiroshima each year, to be placed at the Children's Peace Memorial.  To find out more about this, go the Kid's Peace Station website. 

36 Views of Mt. Fuji (Hokusai)

Here you can see all of Hokusai's beautiful woodcut prints from the series titled 36 Views of Mt. Fuji.  If you count them, you will discover that there are more than 36 pictures in the series.  The original series of 36 prints was so popular that the artist added ten more, although the series title remained the same.

Can you find Mt. Fuji in each picture? Which one is your favorite?

To view the pictures in a larger format and read about the artist Katsushika Hokusai, click on the link for "slorker.com" below.

clipped from slorker.com

The 36 Views of Mount Fuji is a series of woodblock prints created between 1826 and 1833 by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai. Popular in the West, it’s one of the most well known Japanese art works due the widespread pop-culture reproduction of The Great Wave of Kanagawa (the first picture in the series) into posters, t-shirts and postcards.

1. The Great Wave off Kanagawa

2. Mount Fuji in Clear Weather (also known as Red Fuji)

3. A Shower Below The Summit

4. Fuji seen through the Mannen bridge at Fukagawa, Edo

5. The Fuji seen from the Surugadai hill, Edo

6. The coast of seven leagues in Kamakura

7. Senju in the Musashi Province

8. Tama River in the Musashi Province

9. Inume pass in the Kai Province

10. Fujimi Fuji view field in the Owari Province

11. Asakusa Honganji temple in the Eastern capital (Edo)

12. Tsukada Island in the Musashi Province

13. Shichiri beach in Sagami Province

14. Umegawa in Sagami Province

15. Kajikazawa in Kai Province

16. Mishima pass in Kai Province