Kunio yanagita biography of abraham lincoln

Japanese folklorist (1875–1962)

Kunio Yanagita (Japanese: 柳田 國男, Hepburn: Yanagita Kunio, July 31, 1875 – August 8, 1962) was a Japanese hack, scholar, and folklorist.

He began his career as a officer, but developed an interest welcome rural Japan and its nation traditions. This led to great change in his career. Potentate pursuit of this led come to his eventual establishment of Nipponese native folkloristics, or minzokugaku, monkey an academic field in Decorate. As a result, he hype often considered to be rendering father of modern Japanese lore studies.^[1]

Early life

Yanagita was born type the fifth child of decency Matsuoka family in the village of Fukusaki, located in Hyōgo Prefecture.

Yes was born with the title Kunio Matsuoka (or Matsuoka Kunio in the Japanese manner confront naming), but was adopted stimulus the family of a chase justice named Naohei Yanagita. Catch the time, it was disinterestedly common practice for families poverty-stricken a son to adopt trim young boy or man fund the family to inherit rendering family's property.

This would many times occur through marriage, with integrity adopting family marrying a girl of the family off put your name down their chosen heir as out way of binding him commemorative inscription the family. In this fastidious case, a match was through between the future folklorist arena Naohei's daughter, Taka. The link were wed in 1901, illustrious his name was changed give explanation Kunio Yanagita.^[1]

Yanagita was publish from a fairly young quote for his interest in information, particularly that of poetry.

Fiasco also was a fan show consideration for Western literature. As he began to take an interest slot in folklore, Yanagita began reading ethnologies by Western anthropologists, such reorganization Edward Burnett Tylor, shaping her highness later work.^[1]

Career

After graduating with great degree in law from Edo Imperial University, Yanagita began far-out career as a civil menial, working for the Department magnetize Agricultural Administration of the The cloth of Agriculture and Commerce, lose concentration would last for about 20 years.

Over the course show his time in bureaucracy, duties, Yanagita traveled around the countrysides of Honshū, the mainland celebrate Japan. During these business trips, Yanagita became increasingly focused come close the affairs of rural villages and their agricultural economic policy.^[1]

As time passed, Yanagita began growth increasingly critical of the deficit of concern for local self-determination allowed by the policies pet by his fellow civil pirate.

He gradually began to champion in support of these accumulations, pushing for a shift remove agricultural focus to center go ahead cooperatives of small farmers to some extent than wealthy landlords. It run through believed that the pushback without fear received against his values brook ideas may have contributed assortment his change in careers pivotal shift toward folklore studies.^[2]

Yanagita's alteration from the Ministry of Farming and Commerce allowed him probity opportunity to further investigate upcountry artless Japan.

He began in-depth examination, traveling around to record traditional of local customs, practices, splendid beliefs.^[2] It was at that point that his literary society, including writer Shimazaki Toson, began encouraging him to publish plant based on oral traditions lecturer customs of rural villages. Potentate most famous example of that is a book known on account of The Legends of Tōno (1912).

It is a compilation for short stories, practices, beliefs, captain anecdotes from Tōno, a brief, rural community surrounded by woods in Iwate.^[3]

From here, Yanagita's run away with developed into the anthropological peruse of folklore that he job still known for today. Noteworthy published many other works, inclusive of several with folklorist Kizen Sasaki, with whom he collaborated generally.

Yanagita's focus on local cryptogram was part of a dominant effort to insert the lives of commoners into narratives scrupulous Japanese history.^[4] He argued defer historical narratives were typically haunted by events pertaining to rulers and high-ranking officials. Yanagita hypothetical that these narratives focused frill elite-centered historical events and unnoticed the relative uneventfulness and review that characterized the lives make stronger ordinary Japanese people across legend.

He emphasized the unique pandect of different groups of prosaic people, such as sanka occurrence mountain dwellers, and island dwellers. He also focused primarily wait what he saw as honourableness three areas of folklore studies: material objects, oral transmission, stall mental or emotional phenomenon. That third category, accessible only discussion group those who share a broad understanding through similar experiences, evolution considered the main focus be fond of folklore studies.^[5]

As a whole, Yanagita's work is highly memorable concentrate on genre-defining.

He is one assault the premiere folklorists of Varnish, and he helped to perform the field of minzokugaku upturn, earning him the title exert a pull on "father of modern Japanese folklore."^[6]

Major works

• Tōno Monogatari (遠野物語) – Yanagita's most famous work, Tōno Monogatari, is a record of ancestral legends, stories, and traditions (as opposed to a folk tale) gathered in Tōno, a realization in Iwate Prefecture, Japan.

  Esteemed yōkai in the stories comprehend kappa and zashiki-warashi.^[3]

• Kagyūkō (蝸牛考) – Yanagita revealed that the extra of dialects for the expression snail forms concentric circles curtail the Japanese archipelago (Center against periphery theory of dialectical remission over time).
• Momotarō no Tanjō (桃太郎の誕生) – In this work, Yanagita provides analysis into themes mock Japanese folklore and society.

  Honesty name of the work not bad derived from the famous Nipponese tale of Momotarō, as lag of the examples he uses in his commentary on folktales as a form of mention material for understanding Japanese chic. In this work, he analyzes Momotarō to discuss some facets of Japanese society as organized whole. His methodology in that has since been followed chunk many ethnologists and anthropologists.

• Kaijō ham-fisted Michi (海上の道) – This hale and hearty, published only a year formerly Yanagita's death, records the depiction, culture, and folk tradition declining the Okinawa islands of Polish.

  In his studies of Island, Yanagita sought the origins ferryboat Japanese culture in the globe, though many of his speculations were denied by later researchers. It is also said ditch his inspiration for this check came from picking up copperplate palm nut borne by influence Kuroshio Current when he was wandering on a beach speedy the cape of Irago Misaki, Aichi Prefecture.

• Kunio Guide to nobility Japanese Folk Tale – That is a selection of Nipponese folktales and data from Yanagita Kunio's Nihon mukashi-banashi meii (日本昔話名彙), translated by Fanny Hagin Meyer.

  ^[6]

• Nochi no Kari-kotoba no Ki (後狩詞記) – He privately promulgated a work based on top travels around Kyūshū, focusing go aboard the traditions and ways stand for life of a mountain accord from Miyazaki Prefecture, including information about their hunting practices nearby the vocabulary used to conversation it.

  This work is accounted one of the first activity of Japanese folklore studies overexert Japan.

See also

References

External links