Kunio Yanagita - Major Works

Major Works

• Tōno Monogatari (遠野物語)

a record of folk legends (as opposed to a folk tale) gathered in Tono, Iwate Prefecture. Famous yōkai in the stories include kappa and zashiki-warashi.

• Kagyūkō (蝸牛考)

Yanagita revealed that the distribution of dialects for the word snail forms concentric circles on the Japanese archipelago.

• Momotarō no Tanjō (桃太郎の誕生)

He depicted some facets of Japanese society by analyzing the famous folk tale Momotaro. His methodology was followed by many ethnologists and anthropologists.

• Kaijō no Michi (海上の道)

He sought the origin of the Japanese culture in Okinawa, though many of his speculations were denied by later researchers. He was inspired by picking up a palm nut borne by the Kuroshio Current when he was wandering in a beach in Iragomisaki, Aichi Prefecture.