The winning artworks first of all had some component of Japanese language that demonstrates the student’s capabilities. While in the Primary Years this may be as obvious as the title of the artwork and the student’s name written in hiragana, Winthrop Primary School’s Year 5 class excelled with each student writing a wish on the back of their individually illustrated ema. Creative examples of Japanese language use can be seen in the Middle Years in Daniel Walsh’s (Glenaeon Rudolf Steiner School year 9) Mountain and Moon where the character for ‘star’ is scattered across the night sky in a collage or James Bott’s (Haileybury College year 7) Flag of Cranes where the kanji for ‘Nihon’ are formed by black origami cranes. 

Secondly, entries must reference one of the sixteen artworks in the Art Speaks Japanese education kit or its associated activities. The best entries are those that have looked carefully at the Japanese artwork, thought about its meaning and interpreted it in a new context. The same cricket cage inspired two very different works. Melanyi Watt’s (Toorak College year 5) Wishing for Freedom is a drawing where a small green cricket is dwarfed by the smiling face of a girl who looks like a giant in comparison. For Tom Schwenke and James Morris (Carinya Christian School year 7), on the other hand, the Cricket cage was the inspiration for a humourous and action-packed manga Super Sushi vs. the Evil Cricket. Brittany Dickson (Our Lady of Mercy College year 10) looked at the Boot of Shrimps photograph in the kit and came up with the Australian version in Lamington Boot.

Lastly, the judges considered the artistic merit of the works giving preference to those that showed an ease in using the materials they chose and an attention to detail in the presentation. Stephanie Wong’s (North Sydney Girls High School year 8) Haru no Chakai, a miniature tea house with sliding doors and models of numerous types of spring sweets, certainly excelled in this respect.

In this year’s competition there was a wealth of creativity from all over the country. The judges would like to commend all the teachers and their students.