Trivial objects from Taishō Japan in the collection of Alma M. Karlin

Shigemori Bučar, Chikako (author)

Alma M. Karlin, a young woman adventurer who made her journey around the world between 1919 and 1927, stayed in Japan for a little more than a year. As a young woman without significant funds, she relied on her own ability to earn a living during her stay in the country. Among the items she brought back from Japan to Slovenia there are many small objects which are not typical “exotic objects from the Far East”. They are rather small and trivial items such as a wall calendar, a streetcar ticket, children’s miniature toys, a part of ceremonial wrappings, and paper bookmarks. This paper focuses on the small and untypical items Karlin brought back from Japan. Karlin’s travelogue and other writings, including her notes on the unused postcards, give us some information about her life in Japan. Together with her travelogue, notes and messages on the objects in her legacy, we can reconstruct some aspects of her everyday life in Japan. Though small and trivial, such items collected by Karlin reveal some important details of her experience in the central part of Tokyo in the Taishō period.

• Language: English
• Keywords: Alma M. Karlin, trivial objects, Taishō Japan, collecting, souvenir
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2021
• Number of pages: Str. 21-45
• Numbering: Vol. 9 (25), no. 3
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-131547
• UDC: 379.824:7.074(520)
• ISSN on article: 2232-5131
• DOI: 10.4312/as.2021.9.3.21-45
• COBISS.SI-ID: 77175299
• Publication date in RUL: 29.09.2021

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Asian studies
• Publisher: Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete, Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete, Založba Univerze v Ljubljani
• ISSN: 2232-5131
• COBISS.SI-ID: 265206272

Licences

• License: CC BY-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Description: This Creative Commons license is very similar to the regular Attribution license, but requires the release of all derivative works under this same license.
• Licensing start date: 10.09.2021

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Trivialni predmeti z Japonske v obdobju Taishō v zbirki Alme M. Karlin

Abstract

Alma M. Karlin je potovala okoli sveta med letoma 1919 in 1927. Na Japonskem je živela nekaj več kot eno leto. Med predmeti, ki jih je prinesla domov z Japonske, je kar nekaj drobnarij, ki niso tipični »eksotični predmeti z Daljnega vzhoda«. So majhni in trivialni predmeti, npr. stenski koledarček, vozovnica za tramvaj, otroška miniaturna kuhinjica, vrvice za zavijanje daril in papirnata bralna znamenja. Članek opiše in analizira te drobne in netipične spominke v zbirki Alme Karlin. Skupaj z njenim potopisom in zapiski ter kratkimi beležkami na hrbtnih straneh razglednic nam ti predmeti razkrivajo podrobnosti njenega življenja na Japonskem, ki ga je večinoma preživela v središču Tokia v obdobju Taishō.

• Keywords: drobni predmeti, spominki, Alma M. Karlin, obdobje Taishō, zbirateljstvo, zbiranje

Projects

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Project number: J7-9429
• Name: Vzhodnoazijske zbirke v Sloveniji: vpetost slovenskega prostora v globalno izmenjavo predmetov in idej z Vzhodno Azijo