Gyotaku Fish Prints

Third grade students learned about the Japanese art of gyotaku which means "fish rubbing". Japanese fishermen, wanting to record the size and type of fish caught, would rub ink on their fish, cover the fish with rice paper and rub their hands along the top of the fish printing it onto the rice paper. These prints below were done with rubber fish and acrylic paint. The seaweed was printed from feathers. The background was completed with watercolors.