3D computer graphic (3DCG) modeling incorporates many difficulties and this causes many students to become frustrated in the early stages of modeling. The hesitation of students has been described as one of the bottlenecks of 3DCG learning. This study hypothesized that by using a 3D scanner, students' hesitation could be avoided and modeling time could be reduced. The results showed that when a completed model was available, time could be reduced. However, if there was no actual model that could be used as a reference and a new sample model had to be created, a reduction in time could not be expected. Through application in the classroom, various problems relating to the use of 3D scanners were also revealed.

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This study investigates the material attributes of digital images. Although expression and appreciation are two important themes of art education, this research focuses on the relationship between expression and material. Digital images have been considered to have different features to conventional images, and no previous studies have looked at the sensitization of digital images. The purpose of this study was to create a method that allows for the sensitization of digital images. The method developed was verified through an analysis of high school students' work. The results indicated that the students tried to give some kind of material sense to their images.

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This study researched how the first director of the Art College in Berlin (Hochschule fur bildende Kunste), Karl Hofer, developed his ideas for the reformation of art academies in the 1920s, based on his manuscripts from the 1910s to the 1930s and his autobiography of 1952. In the early 20th century, Hofer's artistic sensibility was acquired through the influence of French modern art. In the 1920s and 1930s, he developed a new art theory and concept from the abstract artists of Bauhaus. Hofer also tried to find a new way for art education synthesizing traditional art and modern art.

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"Creative City" is a strategic cultural policy of local government that is being actively promoted, not only in Western countries, but also in various regions and cities in Japan. Forerunning Japan, countries like the United Kingdom and France, have undertaken similar initiatives emphasizing art and culture using "creative" as a keyword. However, many differences can be seen, like differences in citizens' awareness, and in the promotion and interpretation of the concept. In this paper, changes in the cultural policy of local governments, such as the "creative city" initiatives, are seen as trends related to art education and school education. It also looks at how these changes impact children and school education, and gives suggestions on how we should deal with these issues in the future from the standpoint of art education.

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This paper descrives the effectiveness of an art appreciation lesson which allows students to discuss the configuration of Okyo's sliding door paintings in Kotohiragu Shrine. The author suggests "non-completion" as a unique aspect of Japanese art, and describes the layout of rooms and space as an example. Kotohiragu Shrine comprises a huge space composed of elements, from Okyo's sliding door paintings to the outside landscape. The author designed and implemented a high school lesson focusing on the space of Kotohiragu Shrine. From this lesson, students were found to not only comprehend and show interested in the configuration of the rooms, but they also expressed a desire to carry out appreciation of other sliding door paintings and Japanese art. The students were seen to interpret the configuration of the rooms in various ways. The author pointed out that the interpretation stage matched the students' developmental stage, and that a suitable amount of information was provided for the students' discussion.

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Teachers in art classes sometimes hesitate to touch-up children's art. This paper examines this issue from the viewpoints of "adaptation tolerance theory" and "rigorous theory," which are legal interpretations of copyright laws and the right to maintain integrity. The results revealed that positioning the meaning of children's artistic expression not as "activities for children to construct artistic expression values on their own," but as "activities that allow children to enhance their own power of expression while taking in the values of teachers and others," enables children to actively accept teachers' support and issues related to the moral rights of the author can be solved.

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The purpose of this essay is to discuss when and how the term "children's drawings" was defined. It is believed that the term was first used by Sozo Kurahashi in an article of the journal "Jido Kenkyu" (Child Studies) in 1908, whereas the first art educator who used it was Mamoru Seki in "About Drawing Education" in "Nagasaki-ken Kyoiku Zasshi" (Nagasaki Prefecture Education Journal) in 1915. Although the term could have been used since the 1870s when the school system was introduced because the words "children" and "drawings" constituting the term had long been defined, it was not actually used as a term until drawings done by children came to attention after the founding of studies on children's drawings around 1907. Although the term was not used very often after that, it began to be commonly used between 1921 and 1930, probably because of the recognition of children's drawings" in the boom of the free-drawing education movement.

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This paper describes the fourth stage of research which aims to observe and consider infants' acquisition of solid composition ability and the development of solid power of expression, through playing with blocks in the home. In this study, the building block play of one infant was naturally observed, between the ages of two years six months and three years old. The diversity of the expression that reflects the infant's experiences in actual life was considered. The infant was observed to be able to express things imagined from indirect experience in solid shapes. In addition, the infant also began to be able to grasp the overall features of things. Moreover, in block play, the features of people were expressed in more detail than the features of things.

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This paper is a part of a series of basic research that aims to develop teaching material for 3D animation production in art education. This series of basic research has discussed the importance of 3DCG expression because of its educational content, the difficulties of teaching the subject, and methods to overcome difficulties in teaching. The present study builds on this and aims to suggest a method for teaching. It describes an expression system using multiplatform freeware and a study support system that incorporates cooperative learning. Experimental education activities using this system were carried out and the educational effects were analyzed. The observed educational effect was greater than anticipated.

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Reflecting on the perspective of "zoukei-asobi" (art play) as designated in the 2008 Japanese Government Curriculum Guidelines, this paper looks at the practice of the art activity of "making a giant maze" conducted by pairing students from different elementary school grades. The worksheets (picture diaries) of grade 5 students were examined and the meaning of and issues related to "zoukei-asobi" were investigated. Through observing both the verbal and pictorial aspects of the reasons why children enjoyed the activity, it was found that the grounds for this enjoyment could be divided broadly between the process of making the giant maze and the process of playing in it. "Zoukei-asobi" is an activity that combines both art and play, and thus has the capacity to arouse interest in most children in correspondence with their stage of growth. As well as reaffirming the special nature of "zoukei-asobi" as an expressive element of the subject of art, this study highlighted issues related to invigorating "zoukei-asobi" and the direction to take to achieve this.

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In this study I analyzed the utterances of the teacher in art classes in relation with the professional experience of the teacher and attempt to clarify the structure and characteristics of the utterances. I compared the classes of two teachers with differing teaching backgrounds and suggest that the manner in which teachers' utterances are expressed or the feeling of the expression can be called "the third education language." I suggest that the linguistic context of the utterance is important. Furthermore, I discuss the possibility that the attitude of "permission" of the teacher in decision-making in the class is characteristic of art classes.

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This paper describes the Connecting Appreciation Program, which was developed as a school pre-visit program for art museums. This program aims to teach novice students to develop original interpretations of exhibits. In this program, students study the relationships among exhibits and the basic storyline of an exhibition before going to an art museum. This program was used in an elementary school and the effectiveness of the program accessed. As a result, students could acquire viewpoints on exhibits and observe exhibits intently. However, we also saw that motivation to appreciate real exhibits in museums only increased when students were actually observing real works in art museums. This suggests the importance of the experience of appreciating real exhibits.

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Recently, due to increasing diversity in culture and sense of values, rational communication is needed to construct relationships between people. However, communication requires sensibility at the same time. This paper suggests that these two aspects of human communication can be integrated through the power of aesthetics. The integration of ratioanlity and sensibility has been a major theme in the history of art education. Today, there are many studies in the area of sensibility and "kansei" science. Of them, the sensibility communication theory proposed by Kujiraoka Takahashi is especially effective. This theory provides a practical theory for art education as follows: it allows people to feel connection with others and feel pleasure; it starts from children's initiative and involves autonomous play; it allows the integration of sensibility and rationality; and it allows the people involved in the activity to relfect on their sensibility and rationality.

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This paper describes the design and implementation of an educational model for high school, designed to enhance students' self-esteem and enable them to have confidence in their art. This model for art education is based Abraham Tessa's self-evaluation maintenance model. The implementation of this model in a high school over nine years, from the experimental first stage model to the revised model which incorporates self-evaluation based on interaction with the community, is discussed. The results showed that students, who were reluctant to display their works of art immediately after they entered high school, became confident to display their works of art both within their school environment and within the local community, and began to manage exhibitions independently.

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This research discusses detailed records that show how the meaning of pictorial content changes as young children in the schematic stage draw pictures. Specifically, the study utilized a "drawing process analysis sheet" to examine the visual and narrative context of the drawing process. Through this research the following were discovered: 1) pictorial content may be altered when children change their way of thinking from part of the picture to the overall image; 2) in the process of constructing the picture, children may develop new pictorial content depending on the procedure and positioning of previously-drawn images on the page; and 3) various small stories appear throughout a picture, but eventually these story elements combine to form a new narrative.

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This paper discusses class material devised to enhance junior high school students' creation of themes of expression and study instructions related to this material. In this study, students were asked to utilize worksheets called "Creation Charts." These worksheets were used in various activities to encourage the creation of themes of expression. They allow students to change vague images into words or into mind maps. The educational effects of this method were researched by examining the content described in the worksheets and the students' art works. The results showed that instruction which encourages diversification and analysis of expression themes through using study theme names that improve inner image inspiration and "Creation Charts," enhances the creation of expression of theme.

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This study attempts to analyze preschool children's play with clay in the company of their mothers, based on the viewpoint of relationships within the 'situation' in which the child is participating. Furthermore, it attempts to consider to what extent a supportive relationship influences the development of a child's ability to empathize with others and to develop his/ her own personality. In the study, two play sessions in which two mother and child pairs participated were observed. The results indicated that it is important to accept children as they are, and that by relating to children with empathy, parents and adults can help children develop their personality and develop their ability to build relationships with others. Also, this relationship between children and adults can help children to demonstrate their own personality as an individual in the social and cultural circumstances in which they live. Finally, in terms of the development of a child's personality and the ability to establish relationship with others, it was concluded that a supportive relationship is crucial for children engaged in creative activities.

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In this paper, we examined the 'art and handicraft' questions in the national elementary school teacher recruitment examinations to see whether or not the content of the examinations were appropriate to judge applicants' ability to improve students' "academic ability" as required at elementary school level. First, we clarified how "academic ability" and "evaluation" were stipulated in the education-related laws. Then, we analyzed the examination questions in the light of the Course of Study, which is based on the education-related laws, and textbooks issued in accordance with the curriculum. As a result, we found that the examinations did not appropriately follow the Course of Study and the textbooks stipulated by the education-related laws, which led us to discuss what expertise and skill should be emphasized in relation to 'Art and Handicraft' classes in elementary schools. Finally, we proposed that university education needs to be able to meet these needs.

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This paper investigates the spread of the use of plaster figures in drawing education from the 1880s to the end of the Taisho era. Based on documents stored at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, the role of producing plaster figures was found to have shifted from art schools to private studios along with the movement of drawing education methods, which moved from art schools to public schools. Plaster figures, which were originally imported from the west by the College of Engineering Art School, began to be to be produced domestically. With the expansion of secondary schools and drawing education in the 1880's (in the Meiji Era), the production and distribution of plaster figures by the private dealers also increased. The spread in the use of the drawing method using plaster figures in public schools was seen to be due the use of this method and materials by art teachers, rather than through the national curriculum.

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In this study, the soil which was used to provide an environment suitable for early childhood education art was a mixture of sand and clay. This material is suitable for children's art because it has viscosity and plasticity once a specified amount of liquid has been added to it, and it can be crushed relatively easily by children after it has dried. The soil used as an example in this study was "used soil" (riyoudo) from a quarry plant in a river basin. A technical method was used to analyze the grain and clarify the character of the soil. This paper describes how art activities were developed using this material and discusses the implications of this.

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This paper aims to clarify the possibilities and challenges of classes incorporating appreciation activities. It focuses on the functions of dialog scenes, within appreciation activities, that generate "meaning." "Polyphonic dialog and talk," in which the different voices of children intermingle with others, are understood as working for children to link their mutual "differences" and expand their interests. The classes practiced and studied in this study used appreciation activities that focus on J.Kristeva's perspective of "intertextuality." This study clarified that this approach encourages children to try to direct their eyes to the figurative meanings behind works and the information and culture that the artist is referencing in his/ her work, and that dialog activities that allow the communication of such perspectives provide opportunities for children to expand their values of art appreciation experiences.

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This study researches the connection between the curriculum of art in early childhood education and care (ECEC) centers and elementary school education. The purpose of this research is to clarify how materials and tools are currently used in ECEC in Japan. It investigated the average ages that young children start using various materials and tools at ECEC centers and the understanding of elementary school teachers concerning when young children begin to use these materials and tools. The results showed that children begin to use materials and tools in ECEC earlier than elementary school teachers understand them to. It also found that children start to use many materials and tools (for example scissors and glue) from second or third year classes.

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This study compares calligraphy education in the Courses of Study of South Korea and Japan. The subject of "shuji" was taught in both countries before World War II. After the war, it was reorganized within the Korean educational system as a part of art education and called "shoei," and within the Japanese education system as a part of national language education and called "shosha" or "shodo." Since then it has undergone various changes following revisions in each country's Course of Study. This study compares the content of "brush writing education" designated by the Courses of Study for art education in Korea and for Japanese language education in Japan in each period. The aim of the study is to clarify the position of calligraphy education (writing with a brush) in the school education systems of the two countries.

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The aim of this paper is to define skills for looking at visual images that can be enhanced through art education, and to explore what constitutes effective educational support to develop these skills. A comparative study of Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), the Transforming Art Through Education (TETAC) project (a new Discipline-based Arts Education project), and visual culture education was carried out to clarify each methods' distinctive ideas on learners' acts of looking and their different perspectives on skills to be nurtured within each method's educational framework. Despite their differences, integrating some of the viewpoints of these methods and educational support was seen to be necessary for learners' "looking" to be connected to the enhancement of thinking dispositions and communication skills, and for learners to understand socially constructed visuality. Incorporating some of these methods' important viewpoints, this paper proposes a new educational framework in a constructivist learning environment.

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With the aim of understanding the situation of "Jiyuga" (free drawing) education in Akita Prefecture, this paper investigates the study meeting for drawing education held in the prefecture in 1923 by analyzing articles from three local newspapers, Akita Sakigake Shinpou, Akita Shinbun, and Nikkan Sin Akita. This research had the following two findings: 1) there were both drawings of realism and non-realism in the drawing education of Akita, and 2) the teaching method of "Jiyuga" by which all primary school teachers could teach free drawing to their students was not yet developed.

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This paper describes an attempt to develop an art education unit that makes use of regional resources and aims to build civil literacy in children, consequently contributing towards sustainability. Although art classes using regional resources have been taught in schools, many of these seem to have only allowed students to create works that look good or to merely present slogans calling for the conservation of regional resources. This paper describes an art education unit created to develop civil literacy through creative work using regional resources, from the angle of civil literacy presented in the Ministry of the Environment's "Guidebook for sustainable region construction."

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This study aims to interpret "paintings of prenatal memories" and to verify the effect of mother-child workshops in which these pictures were drawn. "Paintings of prenatal memories" are pictures drawn by children about their memories of being in their mother's womb or the time of their birth. In these drawings, the light, sound, water, umbilical cord, and children's state of being while enveloped in their mother's womb are expressed as zigzag lines, double circles, and mandala patterns, which seem to be meaningful symbols for both mothers and children. The activity of drawing these memories is thought to be useful to stimulate young children's expression and to help mothers and children become aware of their ideal relationship. In this paper, through an analysis of the paintings drawn at the workshops titled "Let's Recall the Time When We Were in Our Mother's Womb-the Drawing of the Mother-Child Bond-Prenatal Memories", the following points were made clear: (1) it is possible to interpret children's drawings by classifying their words about their fetal memories into the three categories of "five senses", "emotion", and "posture and movement of fetus", and to identify drawing patterns and symbols corresponding to each of these categories; and (2) the workshops were effective both in increasing young children's interest in expression activities and in strengthening the mother-child bond.

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Compared with the postwar period, the amount of time allotted to art classes in schools in recent years has decreased. As a result, it has become more difficult to carry out lessons that allow the experience of various expression and appreciation. However, by using various approaches in teaching one subject matter, students may be provided with a variety of experiences in a comparatively short time. This paper describes how 'general art expression,' can be a means to use the one subject matter to traverse various domains of art, such as pictures, sculpturing, design, craft, and art appreciation. Specifically, it looks at lessons related to the topic of 'Entrusting our message in a monument - our tower to the future.' This project incorporated art appreciation, landscape design from the perspective of painting, sculpturing and crafting, and the building of a maquette using matches from the perspective of architecture. It incorporated approximately seven hours of junior high school lesson time. This paper examines how a theme for appreciation was created and a maquette created from the level of drawing.

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This paper focuses on the handicraft education theory of Shimekichi Abe in the early Showa era and compares it with Hidekichi Okayama's curriculum theory. The results showed that Abe's curriculum theory was structured to combine teaching materials units and experiential units. Abe allotted units concentrating on experience through play for the lower grades of elementary school, described training of knowledge and technical skills as important for middle grades of elementary school, and allotted experiential units related to social life to upper grade elementary school. Abe's curriculum proposal was based on research carried out in schools.

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This study discusses an analysis of drawings documented from Aisyu Kindergarten's art classes in the late Meiji period. The results of the analysis revealed that the documented "drawings" from Meiji Year 37 to 41 (1904 to 1909) were done at the children's "own discretion," and that these drawings depicted objects that were, at the time, familiar to the children, such as warrelated scenes. In particular, using pencils and a white sheet of paper, many of the children drew battleships as their "Nichiro sensou kinencho" (memories of the Russo-Japanese War), and in the majority of these pictures the ships were engaged in battle. Moreover, it was found that children seemed to have a strong interest in the shape and form of battleships.

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This paper aims to clarify the purpose and the historic steps that the Ministry of Education took to establish handicraft (Shukou) as a school subject in 1886 (Meiji year 19). At that time, it was difficult to decide on the aims and content of the subject of "shukou," because of leaders' differences in thinking on educational matters, budget difficulties, and the expansion of the war. However, in the later years of the Meiji era, "shukou" was settled to combine the purpose of both general education and vocational education. In this study we investigated this process by examining remaining articles and previous research. We clarified that the educational thinking of Hidekichi Okayama was important in leading to the process of blending these purposes. We concluded that the original purpose and content of the subject "Shukou" is now dispersed within the subjects of art and craft at elementary school, art and industrial art at junior high school, and art at high school.

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The concept of 'subject matter' as 'a medium connecting teacher and students' was first used in the book "Art Teaching Materials for Junior High Schools" published in 1982. In this study, we examined how 'subject matter' was organized in the five fields of painting and drawing, sculpture, composition-design and communication-design, production of crafts, and art appreciation, in the Course of Study for Japanese schools. This book describes four common themes related to 'subject matter' in the five fields: 1) ways and means of embodying theme, 2) ways and means of devices for seeing and expressing, 3) expressing ideas, and 4) materials and tools. Rather than the traditional concepts of the terms 'units' or 'teaching materials', the contents and methodology of the book identified framework and structure as being important to teach art. Furthermore, the authors of this book seemed to be conscious of the meaning of the term 'subject matter' and recognized its role. These five fields of art education still depend on and express the original principle of a field-based framework. However, this book made the first attempt to describe 'subject matter' as a whole, i.e., with an educational framework and intellectual structure related to the level of educational administration.

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The purpose of this study is to describe the prospects of "as if" drawing activities in early childhood education. Generally, most preschool and nursery school teachers, and art education researchers consider "as if" drawing activity to be an important form of artistic play for children. However, they tend to pay much less attention to the future of "as if" drawing. The results in this study showed that: 1) "as if" drawing should aim to develop children's creativity in the 21st century 2) pattern recognition prototypes may encourage children's creative drawing in "as if" activity.

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This paper looks at the process leading to the change in the name of the subject of art in the curriculum of national schools during the Second World War. It investigates the plan for the subject of art ("art and manual art") in schools put forward by the education council in 1938 and looks at the opinions of educators who opposed this at the time. The study focuses on the minutes of the committee meetings of the education council and discussions of art educators, analyzing the descriptions art and crafts. The lower grade subject of handicraft was seen to be absorbed into the upper grade subject of art. A plan for the subject of art, following the plan of the education council, was made and 'craft' (kosaku) was accepted as the name of the subject.

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