Kunio Yanagita

1875 - 1962

country of citizenship: Japan

native language: Japanese

languages spoken, written or signed: Esperanto, Japanese

educated at: University of Tokyo Graduate School for Law and Politics, Kaisei Acamey, 郁文館中学校・高等学校, first higher school

occupation: lexicographer, anthropologist, linguist, writer, Esperantist, university teacher, agronomist, folklorist, poet

award received: Order of Culture, Order of the Rising Sun, 1st class, Person of Cultural Merit, Asahi Prize

position held: Shokikanchō

Kunio Yanagita (柳田國男, 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 modern Japanese folklore studies. Source: Wikipedia (en)