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KAMISHIBAI CONNECTIONS 

Seventh Issue

September 2011   

Take A Look!
Spotlight: Pepe Cabana
Featured: The Bamboo Princess
Moon Viewing
About Bamboo
A Message to Our Readers

Spotlight:  Pepe Cabana 

 

 

 

 

 

El teatro de papel de Pepe Cabana, Mukashi Mukashi
El teatro de papel de Pepe Cabana, Mukashi Mukashi

 

 

 

Kamishibai:
A Versatile  Tool to Develop
Reading, Writing
and Oral Storytelling Skills

 

 

All kamishibai include a 
Teacher's Guide

 ClickTeacher's Guide here

for excerpt of

The Bamboo Princess Teacher's Guide

 

 

 

    
The Kamishibai Classroom 
The Kamishibai Classroom by Tara McGowan 
The Kamishibai Classroom: Engaging Multiple Literacies Through the art of "Paper Theater" by Tara McGowan

 

 

 

 

  

Caldecott Medalist

Allen Say
Remembers
Kamishibai

Caldecott Winner Allen Say   
  

 

 

 

 

The Art of Japanese Paper Theater

For more information please go to our website!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jeffrey Dym videos of how to use kamishibai in the classroom 
Jeffrey Dym's videos How to use kamishibai and Kamishibai in the classsroom

 

  
 
 
 Links
  

Manga Kamishibai book

Manga Kamishibai

by Eric P. Nash

 
 
 
Asian Zodiac Postcards 
3 examples:
 

 Asian Zodiac Postcards- 2 examples
2011 The Year of the Rabbit Postcard

One of thirteen Zodiac Postcards

The Year of the Rabbit

 
Kamishibai Peru - Mukashi Mukashi
Kamishibai Peru - Mukashi Mukashi

Featured Kamishibai:

The Bamboo Princess

(Kaguya-hime)

 

Featured kamishibai:  Bamboo Princess

 

 

 

"The Bamboo Princess" is Japan's oldest folktale. The central figure of the story, Kaguya-hime, is discovered as a tiny child in a hollow stalk of bamboo by an elderly bamboo cutter and adopted by him and his wife. Soon they are miraculously blessed with great wealth. Kaguya-hime grows up to become the most beautiful woman in the land and has many suitors, including the emperor. Some of the most exciting parts of this story are those which describe the tasks five princes must undertake in order to prove worthy of marrying her. She gives each of them a nearly impossible task, such as bringing her a beautiful robe made from the skin of the White Volcano Rat from China, or the Buddha's begging bowl from India, but none of them succeed.

 

Although Kaguya-hime grows to dearly love her earth parents, she pines for her homeland. One night, after breaking through a line of the Emperor's soldiers trying to prevent her escape, she ascends towards the moon in a beautiful carriage sent to carry her home. She and her elderly parents realize that her true home is not on earth and sadly accept the inevitability of their separation.

 

The splendid setting and exotic motifs in this story set it apart from other popular Japanese folktales. Its history dates back to about the 10th century. It is a popular version of a very early story written in prose form called The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, said to be a variant of an even older tale from the Asian mainland. The fantasy-like elements of this tale have lent themselves to adaptations in a variety of media, such as film, anime and even opera and ballet.

 

An interesting final note - when the Bamboo Princess returns to the moon, she leaves an elixir of immortality for her parents. Instead of choosing immortality for themselves, they leave the potion at the top of the highest mountain in Japan, Mt. Fuji, which was an active volcano when this story first appeared in Japan. According to this tale the name Fuji, which can be interpreted as "mountain that lives forever," is said to derive from their offering.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Moon Viewing

 

Moon Viewing

 

In the northern hemisphere the full moon appears larger and clearer in autumn. Just as cherry-blossom viewing was a favorite spring pastime of the ancient Japanese, they also had autumn moon-viewing parties, at which they would eat and drink, compose and recite poetry. The full moon is said to be most beautiful in mid-autumn, and even today many Japanese put offerings of seasonal crops, plants and white rice dumplings by a window in their house when the full moon appears in late September or early October.

 

 

 

 

  About Bamboo 

 

  

 

     

Bamboo is both a beautiful and utilitarian plant that grows wild all over Japan and much of Asia. It is actually a grass and has many unique characteristics. It grows to be very tall in a very short time. When bamboo matures it hardens, yet remains resilient. Its fresh shoots are a delicacy, and the mature plant can be used to make baskets, poles, pipes, furniture, musical instruments, tea ceremony implements, and a variety of tools for use in everyday life. It can also be used as a building material. Perhaps the Bamboo Princess's elderly father wove baskets or made implements from the bamboo that he cut.

Large groves of bamboo can be seen all over the Japanese countryside swaying gracefully when the wind blows, and when the hard, hollow culms, or stems, hit against each other as they bend in the wind, they make a very lovely, musical sound. Because of their beauty and grace, they are often planted in landscaped gardens, although their extensive root systems are very difficult to control.

Bamboo, together with the plum and pine, is used as an auspicious motif (shochikubai). The bamboo symbolizes resiliency because it bends but never breaks, while the plum - the first tree to bloom in spring - symbolizes fortitude. Pine, an evergreen, symbolizes longevity.

To the ancient Japanese bamboo was an enigmatic, mysterious plant because it grows so quickly (as fast as 3 feet in 24 hours!) and has a hollow core. As a conduit between this world and the heavens, it would be a natural place to find a tiny, magical girl, who grew up in just three months!

 

  

A Special Message to Our Readers

from Our Good Friend, Tara McGowan

Pepe kamishibai man at the Peruvian Governmental Palace 
Pepe Cabana-Kojachi Performing Kamishibai at the Presidential Palace in Lima Peru.

Since the publication of my book, The Kamishibai Classroom: Engaging Multiple Literacies through the Art of "Paper Theater," in 2010, I have been receiving email from around the world-Korea, India, Sweden, Canada, Turkey, and many other places-from people who are using kamishibai in their professional and recreational lives and who want to learn more about the form. This global network of interest has inspired my next book project, which will focus on kamishibai as a global literacy and how it has been (and continues to be) disseminated around the world.

 

As many of you know, Margaret Eisenstadt and Donna Tamaki, cofounders of Kamishibai for Kids, have been an important part of this development, as well as an invaluable resource. We have decided to collaborate on an offshoot of this larger project in the newsletter. Beginning with this newsletter, we are initiating a series of interviews, introducing readers to the many exciting ways kamishibai is being adapted and transformed around the globe, while still maintaining its unique characteristics as a multimodal performance art form that combines visual, gestural, and verbal literacies. We are very fortunate to begin our series with the remarkably beautiful and creative work of Peruvian designer and artist, Pepe Cabana Kojachi.

 

We are sure that everyone will be inspired by this amazing glimpse of Pepe's life and work. Also we would like to take this opportunity to invite you to be a part of our Global Kamishibai series. If you are doing new and exciting things with kamishibai and would like to contribute an interview, or if you know of someone you think we should contact for an interview (or even if you just have questions about kamishibai or the project) please email us at [email protected].

 

We look forward to hearing from you!

Tara McGowan, Margaret Eisenstadt, and Donna Tamaki

(Tara McGowan is a doctoral candidate in the Language and Literacy in Education division of the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education. For more information about her research interests and work with kamishibai, see her website: www.taramcgowan.com)

 

 

Kamishibai for Kids
Cathedral Station - PO Box 629

New York  NY 10025-0629


Margaret Eisenstadt and Donna Tamaki
(212) 663-2471 

   

Kamishibai Promotes Oral, Visual, Writing Literacy 

Moonlight slants through
the vast bamboo grove;
a cuckoo cries
 
Basho (1644 -1694)
 Layout by S.A.Mossblad
 

 

www.kamishibai.com

 
SALE EXTENDED

   

LITERACY !
PROMOTION 


Each kamishibai:  $30.00
CD/Songbook:      $16.00
Asian Zodiac Postcard set: $8.00

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Ends June 30, 2012