Yanagita Kunio

Founding father of Japanese native folklore studies who systematized rural traditions

Yanagita Kunio (1875-1962) revolutionized cultural anthropology through his pioneering fieldwork documenting disappearing rural customs in Japan. Unlike Western-focused academics of his era, he developed minsokugaku (native folklore studies) by collecting oral histories about mountain deities, agricultural rituals, and supernatural phenomena from marginalized communities.

His 1910 work Tōno Monogatari preserved Northeast Japan's oral traditions through 119 mystical narratives, creating what scholars now call Japan's first authentic folkloric text. Yanagita established comparative analysis methods for studying household deities (yashikigami) and traveling deities (marebito), concepts that later influenced postwar anime mythology.

Through the 1930-1960s, he organized nationwide kyōdo kenkyū (local studies) networks, training amateur researchers to document vanishing customs. This grassroots approach preserved knowledge about koshin faith pillar rituals and ubasoku mountain ascetics that would otherwise have been lost during Japan's rapid modernization.