was a Japanese and Slovenian nurse, promoter of Japanese culture in
Yugoslavia.
Life and work
Kondo-Kavese Tsuneko was born in
Gifu
is a city located in the south-central portion of Gifu Prefecture, Japan, and serves as the prefectural capital. The city has played an important role in Japan's history because of its location in the middle of the country. During the Sengoku ...
, Japan, a daughter of
court architect Kondo-Kavese Kagijiro. After the
Russo-Japanese War, she relocated with her family to
Beijing, where she studied medicine, though she did not graduate. In the International Club, she met Ivan Skušek, a
Slovenian officer (first class superior naval inspector) of the
Austro-Hungarian Navy
The Austro-Hungarian Navy or Imperial and Royal War Navy (german: kaiserliche und königliche Kriegsmarine, in short ''k.u.k. Kriegsmarine'', hu, Császári és Királyi Haditengerészet) was the naval force of Austria-Hungary. Ships of the A ...
who was stationed aboard cruiser
SMS Kaiserin Elisabeth
SMS ''Kaiserin Elisabeth'' was a protected cruiser of the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Named in honor of the Empress Elisabeth, consort of Emperor Franz Josef, the cruiser was designed for overseas service and in fact was stationed in China at the ...
. The couple married in Beijing and in 1920 the family (couple, her son and daughter from first marriage) left China and moved to
Ljubljana, where she soon learned Slovenian. She served as head nurse for the
Red Cross and became an active council member. She received the Red Cross' highest award in 1962.
She also promoted cultural exchange between Japan and Slovenia (then part of
Yugoslavia).
Between 1930 and 1960 she held a series of lectures on Japan, first in German and later in Slovenian, which were published in various newspapers. She also lectured on Japan on the then newly established Radio Ljubljana. She died on January 25, 1963. She is buried in Ljubljana, at the
Žale cemetery.
Tsuneko and Skušek arrived from China to Ljubljana with a collection of over 500 pieces of Chinese and Japanese artwork and antiques, which she bequeathed to the
Slovene Ethnographic Museum in 1963.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kondo-Kavese, Tsuneko
1893 births
1963 deaths
Japanese nurses
Slovenian nurses
Yugoslav nurses
Slovenian people of Japanese descent
Japan–Yugoslavia relations
Burials at Žale
People from Gifu
Japanese expatriates in China
Immigrants to Yugoslavia
Japanese emigrants