BASKET, BURDEN

Description: RECTANGULAR WOVEN WICKER BASKETS WITH CANVAS COVERING SEWN TO IT WITH STEEL PLATES RIVETED TO MIDDLE OF EACH EDGE. PLATES HAVE RAISED RIBS WITH JAPANESE CHARACTERS IN BETWEEN. LARGER OF THE TWO BASKETS HAS LEATHER HANDLES AT ENDS, ONE OF WHICH IS TORN LOOSE.

History: DONOR RELATES THAT THESE BASKET TRUNKS WERE BROUGHT TO CANADA BY HER FATHER, REV. G.G. NAKAYAMA, WHO CAME TO CANADA IN 1919. THE NAKAYAMA FAMILY WAS ORIGINALLY FROM VANCOUVER BUT MOVED TO COALDALE FOLLOWING THE SECOND WORLD WAR WHEN THEY WERE INTERNED AT SLOCAN CITY IN THE INTERIOR OF BRITISH COLUMBIA BY THE CANADIAN GOVERNMENT. THE DONOR'S FATHER, REV. CANON G.G. NAKAYAMA, WAS AN ANGLICAN MINISTER IN VANCOUVER, AND THEN ESTABLISHED THE CHURCH OF THE ASCENSION IN COALDALE IN 1945 WHERE HE SERVED UNTIL 1970. FROM AUGUST 29 TO 31, 2011 COLLECTIONS TECHNICIAN KEVIN MACLEAN INTERVIEWED THE DONOR, JOY KOGAWA, ABOUT HER MEMORIES ASSOCIATED WITH SPECIFIC OBJECTS THAT SHE DONATED IN 1997. OF THIS ARTIFACT, KOGAWA SAID: “IT CAME FROM JAPAN… IT TRAVELLED ACROSS THE SEA [AND] MUST HAVE BEEN FILLED WITH THINGS THAT WERE NEEDED FOR THE VOYAGE… IN JAPAN YOU SEE A LOT OF THESE AND I THINK YOU KEPT YOUR BEDDING IN THEM… THEY HAVE THESE ENTIRE ROLLS THAT YOU PUT AWAY WITH YOUR BEDDING [AND] SLEEPING THINGS.” SEE RECORD P19970041001 FOR EXPANDED BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION AND PERMANENT FILE FOR FURTHER HISTORY.