A Tourist's Album of Japan
Collection Overview
Katherine Wolcott and her uncle, Robert Hull Fleming, compiled this photo album on their visit to Japan in 1909. Part of a larger Asian trip, the two stopped in Japan and collected photos, postcards, bookmarks, and other materials. Fleming was a...
Show moreKatherine Wolcott and her uncle, Robert Hull Fleming, compiled this photo album on their visit to Japan in 1909. Part of a larger Asian trip, the two stopped in Japan and collected photos, postcards, bookmarks, and other materials. Fleming was a graduate of the University of Vermont, and in 1929 Katherine Wolcott helped to fund the construction of the Robert Hull Fleming Museum in memory of her late uncle. This album, a memento from their trip, was part of Wolcott’s own collection.
There are nearly 40 leaves of collected photographs and postcards, numbering two to three per album page. The pictures range in content, some depicting staged photos of daily life while others portray landscapes and countryside. The album itself measures approximately 11 x 14 x 4 inches and is currently housed at the Robert Hull Fleming Museum at the University of Vermont.
Wolcott’s album captures a unique view of Japan at the brink of burgeoning Western influence. After defeating the Russians in the Russo Japanese War (1904-05), Japan began to cement itself as a global power, and its efforts to modernize began to attract Westerners. The images in this album depict a Japan with a strong national heritage and cultural appreciation as well as a newfound embrace of modernization and technology.
Most of the pictures in the album sold commercially as a form of postcard. In the early 1900s, the Japanese populace began consuming millions of these types of commercially produced picture postcards. Eventually, the medium became so popular that it started to replace the more traditional wood block print. The citizenry sought pictures of their budding nation, wanting to hold a still image of the rapidly modernizing and changing countryside.
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Additional Content
Pages
- Title
- The streets of Yokohama
- Date Created
- 1909
- Description
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The streets are lined with ornamentation to celebrate a Japanese victory over the Russians in the Russo-Japanese war.
- Title
- Woman admiring flowers
- Date Created
- 1909
- Title
- A group of female performers
- Date Created
- 1909
- Description
-
The woman on the right is holding a Shamisen, while the other women strike poses.
- Title
- Yakuza showing his tattoos
- Date Created
- 1909
- Title
- Farmer traveling on a country road
- Date Created
- 1909
- Title
- Five women on a bench
- Date Created
- 1909
- Description
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Five women, dressed in elegant kimono's, sit astride a wooden bench. The picture is hand colored.
- Title
- An elderly man getting his hair styled
- Date Created
- 1909
- Description
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It looks as if the man is getting his hair pulled back into the traditional Samurai hairstyle of the top knot (Chonmage).
- Title
- Rural farmer
- Date Created
- 1909
- Description
-
The man in this picture is wearing a straw raincoat, as well as the other traditional attire of a rural farmer. In his left hand, he holds a plant and what looks like a hoe. The other hand is carrying a container.
- Title
- Two traveling female performers
- Date Created
- 1909
- Description
-
The woman on the left is carrying a Shamisen, while the woman on the right is holding a Kokyu.
- Title
- A pond full of fish
- Date Created
- 1909
- Title
- A man carrying his goods to a shop
- Date Created
- 1909
- Description
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The man has a large variety of goods strapped to his cart. There are hand woven baskets as well as wooden containers and ladles.
- Title
- Two Sumo wrestlers
- Date Created
- 1909
- Description
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The belt of cloth, usually silk, worn by the men is known as a "Mawashi" in Japanese.
- Title
- Two women getting water at a well
- Date Created
- 1909
- Title
- Japanese estate grounds
- Date Created
- 1909
- Title
- Samurai bowing before their lord
- Date Created
- 1909
- Description
-
The important figure is stepping into a palanquin, about to be carried to his destination by his bodyguards.
- Title
- Priest holding a religious accoutrement
- Date Created
- 1909
- Description
-
A man dressed in highly formal attire, holding what appears to be some form of altar in between his hands. The long sleeves and exaggerated hat suggest either a religious or upper class background.
- Title
- Elderly man with a bow
- Date Created
- 1909
- Description
-
An elderly man is posing in a clan kimono with a "Yumi" (Bow) in his left hand. The bareness of his left arm suggests that the man is a practitioner of "Kyudo" (Japanese Zen Archery).
- Title
- A riverboat with passengers and workers
- Date Created
- 1909
- Title
- Farmers planting their crop
- Date Created
- 1909
- Title
- Two women practicing calligraphy
- Date Created
- 1909
- Description
-
The two women are practicing Japanese calligraphy, or "Shodou," an art most saw as a signifier of refinery and nobility.