Kunio yanagita biography

Kunio Yanagita was a Japanese author, scholar, and folklorist.
Yanagita was born Matsuoka Kunio, the fourth of seven sons of Matsuoka Misao, a physician and scholar of Confucian classics.
It was written by Kunio Yanagita, the father of Japanese folklore.

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Yanagita Kunio

Born: 1875
Died: 1962
Other name: Matsuoka Kunio
Japanese: 柳田國男 (Yanagita Kunio)

Yanagita Kunio was a scholar best known for his works in the fields of ethnology and folklore studies. He is often said to have been the founder of both of these fields within Japan, but others long before him had contributed to each, most notably Inoue Enryô and Minakata Kumagusu. His first and most well known work was Tôno monogatari, a collection of folktales from the village of Tôno in Iwate.

Before Folk Studies

Yanagita (originally named Matsuoka Kunio) was born early within the Meiji Period in the year 1875, in a small village in Hyôgo Prefecture. His father was a local physician, and Kunio was the fifth of eight children, the third of four surviving sons. Kunio's eldest brother had a failed marriage, and relocated to Tôhoku in search of a new life, while his second-oldest brother was adopted away into another family, as Kunio himself would be. Neither he nor his brothers continued their father's medical practice.^[1] He was quite well-read in W

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Kunio Yanagita was the sixth son of the Matsuoka family. He was born in 1875 in Tsujikawa-mura, Jinto-gun (the current Nishitawara, Fukusaki-cho). After going to Tokyo, he met Ogai Mori and studied under poet Hagitsubo Matsuura. He cultivated exchanges with literary acquaintances such as Katai Tayama, Doppo Kunikida and Toson Shimazaki. He was also known for having published the Shintaishi (a new style of poem) in the magazine “Literary World.” However, as indicated by his words “Why must farmers suffer poverty?” Kunio Yanagita’s intense criticism of the social structure of the times led him to drop his commitment to literature and pursue agricultural management.

He studied at Tokyo Imperial University and entered the Ministry of Agriculture And Commerce upon graduation. Aside from working, he traveled to various places to study manners. A History of Hunting Terms and The Legends of Tono were written around this time. Furthermore, the founding of the journal “Local Studies” served as a basis for folkloristics in establishing its own discipline and assertion.

In 1919, he left

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Kunio Yanagita

Japanese folklorist (1875–1962)

Kunio Yanagita 柳田國男
Kunio Yanagita, circa 1940
Born	Kunio Matsuoka (1875-07-31)July 31, 1875 Fukusaki, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan
Died	August 8, 1962(1962-08-08) (aged 87) Tokyo, Japan
Nationality	Japanese
Occupation(s)	Bureaucrat, Folklorist, Scholar, Writer
Known for	Tōno Monogatari (遠野物語) Momotarō no Tanjō (桃太郎の誕生) Nihon mukashibanashi meii ("Japanese Folk Tales")
Spouse	Taka Yanagita (1904)
Parent	Yakusai Matsuoka (father) Naohei Yanagita (father-in-law)
Kyūjitai	栁田國男
Shinjitai	柳田国男

Kunio Yanagita (Japanese: 柳田國男, Hepburn: Yanagita Kunio, July 31, 1875 – August 8, 1962) was a Japanese author, scholar, and folklorist. He began his career as a bureaucrat, but developed an interest in rural Japan and its folk traditions. This led to a change in his career. His pursuit of this led to his eventual establishment of Japanese native folkloristics, or minzokugaku, as an academic field in Japan. As a result, he is often considered to be the father of