Detecting Tiny Details

Grip Enhancers (Menuki) with Rats
Artist not known, Japan
mid-1800s, Edo period

Close observation helps students see tiny details in the Grip Enhancers (Menuki) with Rats. They will use these details to engage in different visual arts and movement activities. A video about mochi (one of the objects on the grip enhancers) and activities in Japan around making mochi rounds out the lesson.

Intended Age Group
Early childhood (ages 3-5)
Standards Area
Visual Arts
Lesson Length
One 40 minute lesson
Objectives

Students will be able to:

  • list at least three details they see on each Grip Enhancers (Menuki) with Rats;
  • make shapes out of clay based on shapes they see in the grip enhancers;
  • describe how the Japanese villagers come together to make mochi and why it’s special for their New Year.

Lesson

  1. Warm-up: Have children dance around to playful music. Then have them imagine how a rat would move and try dancing around like rats.
  2. Show children the pictures of the Grip Enhancers (Menuki) with Rats. Make sure the images are enlarged sufficiently for the children to see little details. Have them find the rats in both grip enhancers and tell you which color each one is. Ask them what color the blossoms are on both grip enhancers. Do they see any other plants on the grip enhancers (such as fern leaves)?
  3. Give the children small pieces of air-dry clay and ask them to make one of the shapes they see on the grip enhancers (e.g., circle, triangle, coil). When they finish, ask them to show that shape to a friend. Have them make a second shape and then share that with a friend as well. You can call on a couple of volunteers to show their shapes to the class.
  4. Revisit the pictures and ask: what does the gold rat look like it’s trying to do? Have them put their bodies into a similar position of trying to reach up and grab something.
  5. Tell them the rat is reaching for a food called mochi. Ask if any of the students have ever eaten mochi. If you have resources in your community and allergy considerations allow, bring in mochi for the students to try.
  6. Show them the video of villagers preparing rice to make mochi. Share that the people work together because they are making something special. After watching the video, ask them to call out what they saw in the video. You can have them imitate some of the actions if you have time.

Materials

  • One three-inch ball of air-dry clay for each student
  • Computer, internet access and projector, to watch a video of Japanese villagers making mochi
  • About the Art section on Grip Enhancers (Menuki) with Rats
  • One color copy of the grip enhancers for every four children, or the ability to project the image onto a wall or screen
  • Optional: a sample of mochi for every student (available in Denver at Pacific Mercantile Company)

Standards

CO Standards
  • Visual Arts
    • Invent and Discover to Create
    • Observe and Learn to Comprehend
    • Relate and Connect to Transfer
  • Language Arts
    • Oral Expression and Listening
21st Century Skills
  • Critical Thinking & Reasoning
  • Information Literacy
  • Invention
  • Self-Direction

Grip Enhancers (Menuki) with Rats

mid-1800s, Edo period

Artist not known, Japan

mid-1800s, Edo period

1.563 x 1.688 in

Gift of Julie Seagraves and Richard Kimball, 1986.469

Photograph © Denver Art Museum 2011. All Rights Reserved.

About the Artist

These menuki [meh-NEW-key] were made in the mid-1800s during Japan’s Edo period, a period of over 250 years of peace. Menuki, or sword grip enhancers, were accessories that accompanied a sword and helped a samurai’s grip and hand placement on the sword. Originally, pieces like these were made by the same artisans who made the blade, but by the Edo period, many of these accessories were made by a separate specialist or group of specialists. We don’t know the name of the metalsmith who made these menuki, but it is clear that he was very skilled in working with multiple metals and knew how to create detailed sculptures on a small scale. He made the grip enhancers out of gold, silver, and a metal called nigurame [knee-goo-RAH-me], which is an alloy (mixture) of copper, tin, and lead. Each metal or alloy melts at a different temperature and some metals are easier to shape than others. Such knowledge was only part of what the craftsman had to know in order to make one of these small metal sculptures.

What Inspired It

The craftsman who made these grip enhancers must have wanted to delight the samurai, or warrior and member of the Japanese military aristocracy. The craftsman may have made these grip enhancers for a samurai who had a particular interest in decorating his sword for New Years during a year of the rat, one of the Asian zodiac animals. He included many tiny details—details so small they seemed marvelous. Grip enhancers were part of a sword’s fittings. The fittings included the hilt (handle), the scabbard (blade cover), the tsuba (sword guard), and menuki (grip enhancers). Grip enhancers came in pairs and they needed to be small and because they had to fasten onto the sides of the sword hilt, or handle. They were held in place and partially covered by silk braiding that was wrapped around the hilt and over the grip enhancers. Initially, grip enhancers were used to cover bamboo pins (like small pegs), which went through the handle and held the sword blade firmly inside the handle. They also created bumps on the handle that allowed the samurai to get a firmer grip. Eventually, however, they became more important as decoration, and though they would eventually be covered up by a silk cord that wrapped around the hilt, the artist still had to impress the samurai buyer with his miniature sculptures.

A samurai warrior often had several pairs of grip enhancers and each pair signified something about his values and interests. Even though these small art works were almost hidden from view, the owner would know that underneath the silk braiding, there were grip enhancers symbolizing something important to him. For the owner of these pieces, the miniature scenes of rats and mochi cakes, a favorite food for celebrating the New Year, were important symbols.

A diagram of a samurai sword’s fittings:

Samurai Sword Fittings Diagram

Another pair of grip enhancers in the Denver Art Museum’s collection:

Grip Enhancers (Menuki) with Wasps and Fans

Two examples of sword guards in the Denver Art Museum’s collection:

Sword Guard with Plum Blossoms and Snowflakes

Sword Guard of Bamboo and Tiger

Details

Rats

In Japanese culture, rats were seen as industrious and admired for their ability to find food even in hard times. They are one of the twelve Asian zodiac animals that make up Japan’s 12-year lunar calendar, which was adopted from China. According to this calendar, a person born in a given year will reflect certain characteristics of the animal for which that year is named. People born in the year of the rat are thought to be charming, industrious, and thrifty, but can also be fussy, stingy, and quick-tempered. The rat also serves as a companion and messenger for Daikoku, the god of wealth, and thus has become a symbol of riches and plentiful harvest.

Note the different positions of the rats in the grip enhancers. The gold rat on one menuki is perched near the mochi cake, while the brown rat in the other menuki is on the ground.

Mochi

The oval mound in the center of this grip enhancer represents a mochi [MOE-chee] cake. Mochi is made out of pounded rice that is formed into softly rounded cakes and is then steamed. It is traditionally eaten during the Japanese New Year and other festivals. Mochi cakes are soft when you bite into them and have the texture of a jelly bean. They are made in many flavors.

Tree Stump

The round shape with spiral etching in the center of this grip enhancer represents a hollowed out tree stump, used for pounding rice to make mochi. The hollowed tree trunk formed a large bowl. Steamed rice was placed in the bowl and people from the village gathered together to pound the rice with thick wooden pounders, like very large hammers. Traditionally, making mochi is a group activity. The tree stump in this grip enhancer is decorated for a festival with fern fronds and plum blossoms.

Metal

These grip enhancers were made of nigurame, a dark brown metal that is a mixture of copper, tin, and lead. Gold and silver were also used to create various details. Each metal or alloy must be handled differently. Gold and silver are precious metals and are known for being malleable, which means they can be hammered into thin sheets and easily shaped by the artist. Notice how tiny the metal details are.

Size

These grip enhancers are each 1 9/15” long. It takes great skill to create such detailed sculptures on such a small scale.

Funding for object education resources provided by a grant from the Morgridge Family Foundation. Additional funding provided by the William Randolph Hearst Endowment for Education Programs, and Xcel Energy Foundation. We thank our colleagues at the University of Denver Morgridge College of Education.

The images on this page are intended for classroom use only and may not be reproduced for other reasons without the permission of the Denver Art Museum. This object may not currently be on display at the museum.