My Kyoto Specimen Card Collection // A.C.

My Kyoto Specimen Card Collection // A.C.

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While traveling for two weeks in Kyoto, Nagoya and Osaka (partially crossing paths with the BK team retreat), I decided to give the Peg & Awl Specimen Cards sketchbook a try. I thought it’d be fun to keep an eye out for fun animals and plants to draw while on the trip, and with the notebook’s compact size, charming format, and sturdy, water media-friendly paper, it seemed like it’d make the perfect travel companion and keepsake. Here are the supplies I used:

And now for the cards! In the top left corner, I’ve marked each card out of 20, the way collectible print editions are numbered. Checking the dates at the bottom, though, you’ll notice the cards are not in chronological order. That’s because in most cases, I drew the linework in pencil (sometimes on-the-spot, sometimes from a photo), then painted in the colors and filled out the info later.

Just by searching simple keywords and checking image results, it was possible to identify all the plants and insects. It was cool to realize that so many things I saw were specific or native to Japan!

Of course, the majority of the specimens defy classification…in these cases, I made an approximate (read: bad and/or made up) translation into Latin.

I worked on batches of 3-6, depending on how much downtime I had. I’ve had a lot of practice sketching from observation, so each card didn’t take very long. Maybe 3-10 minutes to draw, 5-15 minutes to color. Even so, I did not expect to actually fill all 20 cards on this trip. It was probably only possible because I took a couple rest days between more tightly scheduled ones. The home we stayed in (in my journal, I called it the “BK’nB”) provided a record player and a rather random selection of LPs, so I put music on while logging specimens. I felt like I was on an artist residency! It was incredibly peaceful and fun, painting at a little table under a big photo of Toshiro Mifune while the light in the room slowly changed and Billie Holiday’s voice drifted on the air.

One thing I love about the design of the Specimen Cards notebook is that you can choose to keep the drawings in book form, or use the perforated lines to make the cards individual pieces. I’ve removed just two: #5 and #6, the portraits of Kei’s cats. At the end of the trip, I gave these to Kei as a thank you gift for hosting and sharing so much of her time and knowledge with us in Kyoto.

On the interior cover, I filled in my name and logged the location and dates for this batch of specimens using Shachihata number stamps and ink pads. Then, I reversed the dust jacket, labeled the blank side, and decorated with a few stickers. The way the big round sticker aligned with the notebook’s spine is super satisfying, given that I took a bunch of trains between cities on this trip.

Ever the archivist, I’m keeping the remaining 18 illustrations in book form on my shelf. But I can easily imagine how cute it’d be to hang them on a string by clothespins or clips as room decor. Or slot them into laminated sheets in a binder, like Pokemon cards.

All in all, I’m really glad I tried something different for this trip’s memory-keeping. I brought a normal writing-only diary, too. But in the quiet moments at the machiya, sitting down to journal, I found myself going back to the specimen cards instead. Something about the small, pre-set format was just the right combo of relaxing, challenging and refreshingly fun to fill out. Especially once it occurred to me that I could count food as specimens. (My personal favorite is the kurogoma pudding). Travel companions got into it too. Once people saw what I was doing, all throughout the trip, various members of the BK team would point things out to me and then excitedly say, “Specimen!!”.

I’ll close the cover on this 2025 collection with a big thank you to the all of the Baum-kuchen team: for the memories you’ve helped me gather—in this notebook and many others, throughout the years—and for having me along on your 15th anniversary adventure.

___

Text and photos by: A.C. Esguerra

Where to find A.C. : IG @blueludebar

Read other stories by A.C. : Here

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