YANAGITA Kunio
A founder of modern Japanese folklore studies. After graduating from the Department of Law at the Imperial University of Tokyo in , he joined the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce. After serving as sanjikan (councillor) of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau, he was appointed as chief secretary for the House of Peers until he retired in One year later he joined the Asahi Shimbun and worked as a columnist until He started to study folklore in and published Tono Monogatari (Story of Tono), which pioneered the area of studies now recognized as Japanese folklore studies. He compiled his works into Minkan Denshoron (Theory upon folklore) in and continued his research even during and after World War II. His over one hundred works are included in Teihon Yanagita Kunio Shu (Edited Collection of Yanagita Kunio’s works). Awarded the Order of Culture in
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Who was Kunio Yanagita?
Kunio Yanagita was a Japanesescholar who is oftenknown as the father of Japanesenative folkloristics, or minzokugaku.
He was born in Fukusaki, Hyōgo Prefecture. Aftergraduating with a degree in law from TokyoImperial University, he becameemployed as a bureaucrat in the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce. In the course of his bureaucratic duties, Yanagita had the opportunity to travelthroughoutmainland Japan. Duringthesebusiness trips, Yanagitabecameincreasinglyinterested in observing and recordingdetailspertaining to localvillage customs. Under the influence of literaryfriends such as the writerShimazaki Toson, Yanagitapublishedworkssupposedlybased on local oral traditions such as Tales of Tono. He collaboratedextensively with folkloristKizen Sasaki, and they publishedseveralbooks together.
Yanagita's focus on local traditions was part of a larger effort to insert the lives of commoners into narratives of Japanese history. He argued that historical narratives were typically dominated by events pertaining to rulers and high-ranking officials. Yanagita claimed that these narratives focused on elite-centered historical events and ignored the relative un
This Memorial Museum was established in in remembrance of Kunio Yanagita. Kunio Yanagita was a recipient of “The Order of Culture Award” and was offered the first Honorary Citizenship of Fukusaki-cho. He is a member of the Matsuoka family, which was active in areas such as medicine, classical literature, linguistics and arts. He had authored A History of Hunting Terms, The Legends of Tono, and many other books. The culmination of all of his literary works granted him the title “The Father of Japanese Native Folkloristics.”
The birthplace of Kunio Yanagita, which was referred to by Yanagita as “the smallest house in Japan,” is considered to be the source of Yanagita’s aspirations towards Japanese native folkloristics. It has been moved for preservation purposes to the western side of the Memorial Museum.
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