Educational activity around the short film Issa
Practice different forms of reading. Read aloud.
Issa © Lunohod
TitleIssa
ThemeAnimals, Poetry
Genre & keywordsContemplative, poetry, poet, haiku, Japan, Kobayashi Issa, tea, cat, animals, cherry tree, sakura, flowers
Age (for film)3-11 years
Duration04 min 43 s
DirectorLīga Skirmane
MusicSaeki Masahiro
ProductionLunohod (Latvia, 2014)
Understand the poetic structure of Japanese haikus. Propose inventive responses in a collective project.
This contemplative film on a walk by Kobayashi Issa, famous Japanese haiku poet (1763-1828) is an opportunity to introduce students to the very particular poetic form of Japanese haikus. “Issa”, which is also the title of the film, means “a (cup of) tea”.
The director was inspired by the work of Kobayashi Issa to imagine this walk and one activity could be to find the haikus which may have influenced the director's choices.
List what Kobayashi Issa encounters during his walk. Specify, before viewing, that all the scenes in the film are subjects often used in haikus.
Haikus are short poems whose themes are often nature, the seasons, or even the present moment, emotions. They are always composed of three lines: 1 line of 5 syllables, 1 line of 7 syllables and 1 line of 5 syllables.
For example, one of the most famous haikus by Bashō Matsuo is given in Japanese: Furu ike ya (5 syllables)
Kaeru tobikomu (7 syllables)
Mizu no oto (5 syllables)
And in French: “An old pond
A diving frog
And the sound of the water »
Bashō Matsuo (1644-1694), Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828), Buson Yosa (1716-1783) and Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902) are the 4 classic masters of haiku.
Why not offer the students, in the form of a game, to associate scenes from the film and famous haikus, then secondly, to invent their own haikus based on images from the film.
Activity sheet written by: Christophe Defaye
