Yanagita Kunio

• Born: 1875
• Died: 1962
• 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. His first and most well known work was Tôno monogatari, a collection of folktales from the village of Tôno in Iwate.

Sources

• Mori, Koichi. (1980) "Yanagita Kunio: An Interpretive Study". Japanese Journal of Religious Studies. Nanzan University.
• Mayer, Fanny Hagin. (1960) Japanese Folk Tales, translated from Nihon no mukashibanashi by Yanagita Kunio. Tokyo News Service, Ltd.